An Open Letter to the Squash Community
This past year the sport of squash was dealt a crushing blow by the
IOC. Unlike golf or rugby sevens, Olympic representation
would have been the pinnacle of competition for squash
worldwide. The past is prologue to the future and the squash
community in America and around the world must refocus their
attention on the development and promotion of the game, but from a
different perspective. We must ask ourselves: why has the
growth of the sport been stagnant or even in decline in some areas?
How does the non-squash player view the sport? And, most
importantly, what are the barriers to entry?
I was born and raised in Atlanta, GA, a city with a surprisingly large squash community given its geographic location in the southeast, and I was fortunate enough to be the son of a private club member and attend a private school with squash courts. Coupled with these advantages was my penchant for slightly off-beat, obscure activities that contributed to a personal sense of uniqueness and non-conformity. In tenth grade I was around 5'9" - 5'10" and weighed between 190-200 pounds - the product of a voracious appetite and an undying love for fast food. I was fat, out of shape, and despised the humiliating weekly runs of PE class. Towards the end of tenth grade, I went to our family's private club on a whim and started hitting squash balls. I played by myself for hours on end, and as I improved, I began to play with other folks. In six weeks I was astounded to learn at my annual birthday doctor's visit that I weighed in at a svelte 168 pounds. I improved my diet mainly by eating less and really started to develop a love for squash and all that it helped me achieve in such a short period of time. Like many involved with the sport, my introduction came from a search for a physical outlet that was fun and has turned into a lifelong passion. I played on my high school team - I was ranked lucky number seven on a team of seven - but I didn't care. So what if I was the lowest ranked player. I was still a player and a member of the team. After high school, I went to college and didn't play much squash due to the fact that I went to an SEC school with only two squash courts and ten racquetball courts. The only people playing squash were international grad students and the occasional game of racquetball or tennis was just easier to organize. I gained some weight the first couple of years, got fed up with myself, and started running and lifting weights. Running became a love/hate relationship, as it is with most people, but it did help me shed those unwanted pounds. Upon graduation and my subsequent return to Atlanta, I took a job at a law firm with the plan of getting a year of work under my belt before law school. As fall crept in with short days and colder temperatures, I decided to return to squash. I joined a commercial club with a pitch up and play system and then began playing with friends at our private club after they reopened in December from a year-long renovation.
My story clearly illustrates both the good and bad of squash as it currently stands in this country. First, private clubs, while great for members and the guests of those members, are not the future of squash development. They are integral to the process because wealthy, motivated, inspired members possess the ability to fund tournaments, charity events, etc., but for the average day-to-day person looking for a fun, exciting way to get in the best shape of their life and have fun doing it, the exclusive private club just isn't an option. Commercial clubs are an option that have been marginally successful in the past, but they really haven't grown the sport by leaps and bounds. Why? My opinion, and I echo many, is that many of the squash players in these commercial clubs tend to be hesitant to play with novice players. Essentially, they view themselves with an air of elitism that detracts potential new players from giving the game a try. I know this because I have played with new guys who apologize for being new and then get frustrated with themselves when they make mistakes. This is utterly ridiculous! Of course a new player is going to hit bad shots, over run the ball, and present a minimal challenge to their opponent, but squash has a steep learning curve and with time, these novice players will become great players. Why in the world should a sport as fun and dynamic as squash present such a mental barrier to entry for those new to the game? I blame elitist players, bad programming, and a misguided focus on competitive tournament play in general as just a few of the causes.
As many sports marketing studies have noted, the problem is a focus on the sport at intermediate, advanced, and elite levels and not on the development of players. People play for a variety of reasons: fitness, recreation, competition, etc. and we have to address all of them, but this simple fact remains: you can not grow a sport by marketing it only to those who already play it. Its like selling cigarettes to a smoker. They're already addicted. You have to get new customers. Agree with me or not, this is how tobacco companies stay in the business of selling poison. The great thing about squash is that its highly addictive too, but we aren't producing new addicts. As an international community, we must address this issue before anything else if we even hope to have a chance at Olympic inclusion in the future. Technology is improving. One-way tinted glass courts, HD cameras and TVs, traceable balls, etc. have all contributed to an improved visual representation of the game and aesthetic appeal, but this can only go so far. Squash offers everything and more one could ask for in an Olympic sport, but this dream will not be realized if we don't produce more addicts and enthusiasts first.
Regards,
John Cook
I was born and raised in Atlanta, GA, a city with a surprisingly large squash community given its geographic location in the southeast, and I was fortunate enough to be the son of a private club member and attend a private school with squash courts. Coupled with these advantages was my penchant for slightly off-beat, obscure activities that contributed to a personal sense of uniqueness and non-conformity. In tenth grade I was around 5'9" - 5'10" and weighed between 190-200 pounds - the product of a voracious appetite and an undying love for fast food. I was fat, out of shape, and despised the humiliating weekly runs of PE class. Towards the end of tenth grade, I went to our family's private club on a whim and started hitting squash balls. I played by myself for hours on end, and as I improved, I began to play with other folks. In six weeks I was astounded to learn at my annual birthday doctor's visit that I weighed in at a svelte 168 pounds. I improved my diet mainly by eating less and really started to develop a love for squash and all that it helped me achieve in such a short period of time. Like many involved with the sport, my introduction came from a search for a physical outlet that was fun and has turned into a lifelong passion. I played on my high school team - I was ranked lucky number seven on a team of seven - but I didn't care. So what if I was the lowest ranked player. I was still a player and a member of the team. After high school, I went to college and didn't play much squash due to the fact that I went to an SEC school with only two squash courts and ten racquetball courts. The only people playing squash were international grad students and the occasional game of racquetball or tennis was just easier to organize. I gained some weight the first couple of years, got fed up with myself, and started running and lifting weights. Running became a love/hate relationship, as it is with most people, but it did help me shed those unwanted pounds. Upon graduation and my subsequent return to Atlanta, I took a job at a law firm with the plan of getting a year of work under my belt before law school. As fall crept in with short days and colder temperatures, I decided to return to squash. I joined a commercial club with a pitch up and play system and then began playing with friends at our private club after they reopened in December from a year-long renovation.
My story clearly illustrates both the good and bad of squash as it currently stands in this country. First, private clubs, while great for members and the guests of those members, are not the future of squash development. They are integral to the process because wealthy, motivated, inspired members possess the ability to fund tournaments, charity events, etc., but for the average day-to-day person looking for a fun, exciting way to get in the best shape of their life and have fun doing it, the exclusive private club just isn't an option. Commercial clubs are an option that have been marginally successful in the past, but they really haven't grown the sport by leaps and bounds. Why? My opinion, and I echo many, is that many of the squash players in these commercial clubs tend to be hesitant to play with novice players. Essentially, they view themselves with an air of elitism that detracts potential new players from giving the game a try. I know this because I have played with new guys who apologize for being new and then get frustrated with themselves when they make mistakes. This is utterly ridiculous! Of course a new player is going to hit bad shots, over run the ball, and present a minimal challenge to their opponent, but squash has a steep learning curve and with time, these novice players will become great players. Why in the world should a sport as fun and dynamic as squash present such a mental barrier to entry for those new to the game? I blame elitist players, bad programming, and a misguided focus on competitive tournament play in general as just a few of the causes.
As many sports marketing studies have noted, the problem is a focus on the sport at intermediate, advanced, and elite levels and not on the development of players. People play for a variety of reasons: fitness, recreation, competition, etc. and we have to address all of them, but this simple fact remains: you can not grow a sport by marketing it only to those who already play it. Its like selling cigarettes to a smoker. They're already addicted. You have to get new customers. Agree with me or not, this is how tobacco companies stay in the business of selling poison. The great thing about squash is that its highly addictive too, but we aren't producing new addicts. As an international community, we must address this issue before anything else if we even hope to have a chance at Olympic inclusion in the future. Technology is improving. One-way tinted glass courts, HD cameras and TVs, traceable balls, etc. have all contributed to an improved visual representation of the game and aesthetic appeal, but this can only go so far. Squash offers everything and more one could ask for in an Olympic sport, but this dream will not be realized if we don't produce more addicts and enthusiasts first.
The process is simple.
Let's focus on operations within the constraints of current infrastructure. We want demand for courts to outstrip supply of courts.
First, we should sell squash to everyone as the healthiest sport to play and as the best, most efficient workout available. A tagline could be "What if I told you that you never had to get on a treadmill, elliptical, or stairmaster ever again? What if I told you there was a sport that can burn 1000 calories an hour, provide an incredible full body workout, and most of all...is incredibly fun and addictive? Is this something you would be interested in?" Follow with a cool promo video etc. etc. and you get the point.
Second, we have to encourage current players to be inviting, inclusive, and eager to share/teach the game to potential players. In my opinion, this should not only be encouraged but required. No one wants to play with a sport they're inexperienced in with an asshole. They just don't.
Third, make facilities available and make availability flexible. Year long contracts with tough escape clauses and high monthly fees are not attractive. Month to month, week to week, or day to day fees with no contract at a reasonable price are attractive to potential players.
Fourth, use the success of tennis and relative popularity of racquetball to our advantage. If court demand exceeds supply, let's build courts at tennis academies and facilities. Let's work with colleges, universities, rec centers, and YMCA's to promote squash and racquetball together. England Squash and Racketball (englandsquashandracketball.com) has done an incredible job of this and we should follow their lead.
Only after we have attempted to achieve these goals will Olympic representation be attainable.
Let's focus on operations within the constraints of current infrastructure. We want demand for courts to outstrip supply of courts.
First, we should sell squash to everyone as the healthiest sport to play and as the best, most efficient workout available. A tagline could be "What if I told you that you never had to get on a treadmill, elliptical, or stairmaster ever again? What if I told you there was a sport that can burn 1000 calories an hour, provide an incredible full body workout, and most of all...is incredibly fun and addictive? Is this something you would be interested in?" Follow with a cool promo video etc. etc. and you get the point.
Second, we have to encourage current players to be inviting, inclusive, and eager to share/teach the game to potential players. In my opinion, this should not only be encouraged but required. No one wants to play with a sport they're inexperienced in with an asshole. They just don't.
Third, make facilities available and make availability flexible. Year long contracts with tough escape clauses and high monthly fees are not attractive. Month to month, week to week, or day to day fees with no contract at a reasonable price are attractive to potential players.
Fourth, use the success of tennis and relative popularity of racquetball to our advantage. If court demand exceeds supply, let's build courts at tennis academies and facilities. Let's work with colleges, universities, rec centers, and YMCA's to promote squash and racquetball together. England Squash and Racketball (englandsquashandracketball.com) has done an incredible job of this and we should follow their lead.
Only after we have attempted to achieve these goals will Olympic representation be attainable.
Regards,
John Cook
Comments
6 Comments
The fundamental problem with squash is that its an expensive game to play. Facilities must be custom-build, take up expensive space, are used only for a limited part of each day and are costly to maintain. Equipment isn't cheap either. The high cost would, of course, be less of an issue if more people played, but volume isn't really the solution because a court has finite capacity.
It is also expensive for the individual in Central Europe and other emergeing economies where squash is very popular indeed, but these countries have taken a hint from the panelled US racketball courts and fashioned a solution of sorts with pre-fabricated courts with cheaper flooring materials. They aren't as good as a brick and plaster court, but they have helped make the sport accessible to masses of students and children with limited disposable income.
Squash's governing bodies are also little more than a band of enthusiastic amateurs. Well-meaning and steeped in squash knowledge, but just not capable of introducing hard-nosed commercialism to our game.
Again in Central Europe club owners (and there are many of them) attract sponsors for every aspect of the game from lockers to courts and events with imaginative initiatives at a low cost aimed at groups of targets that Western marketers wouldn't take seriously. I belive they are living on borrowed time with this and don't have the commercial skills either to leverage the foundation that this initial surge of interest has bought them.
We need to make the sport sexy. The PSA had an initiative of sorts and employed a marketing consultancy a couple of years ago to take the task on, but as a marketer, I know what kind of price ticket these initiatives carry and suspect that this might explain the apparent lack of progress. Even SquashTV, which has all the ingredients of a winner is looking a bit misguided at the moment and if someone doesn't sort it out quickly I fear it will flop too. Its also typically disipated resource because the old PSASquaash contractors are still trying to stay in the game.
Investment by sponsors in PSA events hasn't helped anywhere near as much as it could have, maybe again because the people at the business end have their own objectives or lack the skills and experience that's needed.
I think that the IOC lokked at squash and just felt it wasn't organised enough. Its one thing to present a slick and organised fascade, but these people aren't fools and they can see that there's no internal marketing ensuring that the promise is delivered. We need to up the game at grass roots level and eliminate the numerable representative bodies with their own narrow vested interests - We can't even achieve a consistent international scoring system for heaven's sake! - and only a concerted and focussed internal marketing campaign will achieve this.
I can't pretend that the process of change will be a quick one although once the expertise is in place the size of the budget will influence progress. Money without the know-how will just resut in more waste, but I've offered my help to England Squash and the PSA in the past and neither have seen the need to take up my offer.
If someone finds the money to fund strategy development, I'm happy to bring my skills and experience to the party, but I'm not prepared to waste my time and other people's money if amateurs are going to have a veto and I doubt that you'll find any professional marketers with genuine commitment to the future of the sport will do so either.
Sad, I guess, but true. There's the challenge, if someone wants to take me up on it, get in touch.
Example: Does squash have a transparent "baseline" of number of squash players, courts, juniors, average age of players, number of tournaments, tournament participatin measures for each club and aggregated by city, county/province/state, country?
Wouldn't tracking and publishing this data (including prior years), for all to see, be a worthwhile FIRST effort to understand trends, current state and catalyze action and participation in addressing opportunities and threats?
It is really easy to criticize associations and look to big grandiose marketing plans, but believe we need to look for small, tangible, specific actions and efforts for the individual squash player/teaching pros to do their part as well.
You are also right that clear data is essential and gathering and auditing it would be an essential part of the discovery process upon which any strategy would have to be based.
Our sport is not going to improve its position without what you refer to as grandiose marketing plans. The problem IS that everything that is done is small scale, amateur and perochial and has been for years. Grass roots projects usually achive nothing beyond their local area and even that is unsustained. Only a major culture change is going to affect the degree of change that's necessary. That, of course, will cost money, but I am sure more could be done with the resources available. I once advised one of the squash counties with an ineffectual budget to invest it all in designing and publicising planned initiatives to chase sponsorship. They didn't have the balls to do it, but I still think they should have and it might be appropriate on a national scale now.
1. Is there a shared objective, goal or concern? Is there an appetite for change? Does a squash pro in Atlanta, Georgia have the same objective as the average (disinterested player), owner of a private club, USSRA CEO/Board member, squash business, PSA player, PSA CEO, corporate sponsor, private club. Gotta nail this down.
2. Who builds the strategy, plans, makes the decisions, takes the risks and credit.
3. How do you pay for it?
For there to be any chance of tangible success and change, I believe a core group of 5 to 10 people from around the world needs to be formed to work outside current structures, organizations and paradigms to:
- develop a vision, blue print
- build a "tent" that inspires, includes and generates tangible ideas, actions, results
- assemble like-minded people in sport willing to offer on a pro bono basis their expertise, connections in areas such as finance, fund raising, new media, marketing, advertising, design, etc
- war chest
- data, info, tools, resources, ideas, best practices from everywhere
- multiple working groups to compartmentalize tasks, efforts and engage broad spectrum of ideas, resources, geographies
It will be incumbent on all of us throughout the squash community (at every level) to give this group every conceivable support, open Rolodex, make introductions, share info, collaborate with a spirit of "this is war" and we're losing, we gotta pull out all the stops, if they succeed, we all succeed, it's not about who's right, who gets credit, where ideas come from, politics or pride.
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