Is the Game of Squash in Trouble?

Sport England’s rally to get people playing squash

Andrew Cave and Alex Miller

England is the top nation when it comes to playing squash, but the number of participants is falling. Hopes are high that a new strategy will halt the decline

In a perfect sports business scenario, grass-roots participation and support attract corporate backing, which funds investment to grow the game and brands associated with it. However, virtuous circles don’t always last. Take squash, for example. The Men’s World Team Championship in Cairo was recently cancelled due to security concerns, but the sport faces a constant battle to build on its popularity.

Developed at Harrow School in the 1830s from the older sport of racquets, squash is played in 175 countries by an estimated 20 million people and has been called “the world’s healthiest sport” by Forbes magazine. England retains close links with the sport, possessing 8,500 squash courts – substantially more than any other nation – as well as the current men’s and women’s team squash champions, along with Nick Matthew and Laura Massaro, the second and third-ranked players in their respective individual world rankings.

However, participation in the sport in England has fallen to 196,500 weekly players from 290,000 in 2010, following a mini-boom between 2008 and 2013 that was aided by a drive from England Squash & Racketball to improve the participation of girls, women and ethnic minority players.

The target was to introduce 122,000 schoolchildren to the sport through partnerships and in 2013 Sport England committed £13.5m to the game, with the aim of increasing the number of people playing the sport and maintaining the national squad’s world No 1 status.

Between 2013 and 2017, Sport England is ploughing nearly £5m into England Squash talent and elite programmes, and action was taken last year to halt the sport’s decline, with the appointment of new chief executive, Keir Worth, to lead a restructuring of the organisation and introduce a new participation strategy.

Sport England rewarded this progress with a one-year award of funds to support the development of the new strategy and there is hope that the English game can follow the success of the United States, the world’s fastest-growing squash market and home to the Professional Squash Tour.

Corporate sponsors have pledged their support, with Dunlop Sports signing a new five-year deal this year to renew as sponsor of the Professional Squash Association (PSA).

Toby Marcham, head of specialist sports at Dunlop’s parent company Sports Direct International, says: “Having our ball used by the world’s best male and female players is the ultimate endorsement for Dunlop as the undisputed world No 1 squash ball brand, with a global market share of more than 90 per cent.”

Dunlop also supplies the PSA’s official rackets and is one of several sponsors of Nick Matthew, alongside sports shoes group Hi-Tec Sports, stockbroker AJ Bell and Georgia’s Sea Island Resort. Hi-Tec chief executive Ed van Wezel says the sponsorship reflects the company’s “relentless desire and unrivalled passion” to ensure that we make the very best shoes for players of all standards, whether it be Nick or the squash-mad amateur”.

The facilities management group Sodexo, construction firm Hunter Roberts, Drexel Medicine and media group Comcast-NBCUniversal are among the sponsors of the US Open Squash Championships.

With squash players and fans largely falling into the attractive demographic of high-earning 25- to 45-year-olds who are strong spenders on sports clothing and equipment, potential clearly exists for brands to leverage an association with the game to build their own appeal.

Participation levels remain the key metric but Mr Worth believes that England Squash can emerge from what he describes as its “difficult time”.

“We feel we’re in a really strong position to deliver change,” he says. “We are fully aware of the challenges.”

Recruiting a new army of followers and players is now essential if English squash is to recover its poise and exploit its opportunities.

As other sports attest, however, participation needs to be accompanied by deep engagement if it is to resonate with the brands and the sponsors that can help take the game to the next level.

A sporting chance

“The number of people playing squash has declined in the past decade because of a number of factors, including funding cuts for local authorities, consumers having more choice about how to spend their leisure time and misconceptions about the sport.

“In 2016 England Squash will launch a number of innovative programmes and campaigns to encourage more people to play at all levels and from all backgrounds.

“We are also working on a commercial strategy to ensure that the products and programmes we market are attractive to sponsors. Our ability to expand our membership data and get one million people playing squash each year will be key to giving sponsors real value in terms of profile and marketing their products to the squash community.”– Mark Williams, director of participation, England Squash