Squash players in England in 2011: 494,500*
Squash
was born in England.
They have produced and crowned world champions.
But their squash population shrank by 84% in the last generation.
In 1985 England had 3.1 million squash players (Source: British Journal of Sports Medicine). Last year Sport England reported (here) 467,000 squash players.
Squash in England today has 16% of its 1985 participation. And Sport England's most recent report (here) shows a downward trend in participation levels for younger players.
Could this be just the natural order of things or is there something squash can do to regain its status?
Could this be just the natural order of things or is there something squash can do to regain its status?
* Note: The 1985 study included the populations of England and Wales. The 2011 study included England alone. Today's population of England is approximately 51 million people, and the population of Wales is roughly 3,000,000. England's 467,000 squash players represent 0.915% of the population. Assuming a similar percentage of the population in Wales plays squash, this would imply ~27,500 players for a combined 494,500 players.
I don't think any sane person would argue that for several years there has been a slump in participation in squash since it's peak in the 70's and 80's. The reasons are many and complex.
ReplyDeleteI would say that over the past four or five years there has been growing evidence that there are green shoots of recovery.
What isn't highlighted in this piece is that according to Sport England most sports have suffered a decline in participation, some dramatically, in the last two years whereas squash has remained broadly stable.
Sports and Past-times have historically peaked and trough-ed.Sometimes it is fashion, sometimes the economy. If you haven't read Bowling Alone - you might find it fascinating (http://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Community/dp/0743203046/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339588203&sr=1-1&keywords=bowling+alone)
ReplyDeleteHowever, sports have frequently become reliant on NGB's for their promotion, development and/or failure. Although this has, understandably, been the typical evolution it is a crazy scenario.
NGBs develop in response to need and then govern the participants who show that need. NGBs are administrators. They administrate existing business.
Imagine for a moment that a multi-national like BMW or Apple suddenly fired its entire sales and marketing department and then walked into the administration building and said to all the book-keepers and accountants: ' OK folks, from now on you have to do all the marketing, PR, Sales and product development.'
How long do you think those corporations would last?
This is precisely the situation with Sport NGBs. Going back to the multi-national scenario, I am sure that admin departments of BMW and Apple would do their best - but they just don't have the skills or tools to be the R and D and Sales departments of their organizations.
If Squash ( and any other sport for that matter) wants to succeed in the modern world, then Squash needs Sales, Marketing, PR, and Research and Development professionals that can create need - not just service and govern it.
There is a huge market out there - 65million in the UK, 350million in the US - so it's not as if the business doesn't exist. But Squash just can't wait for the business to roll in so that it can do its clients the favor of administrating them. And the NGBs don't have the skills, tools or the manpower to develop new business. There needs to be a coalition between those that stand to benefit from the development of the sport and those with the skill to develop it. A give and take.And a recognition that some people have the skills to develop business and some people have skills to administer is. You can't suddenly switch horses - you need to find people that either know their business or can train business developers.