How Many People Play Squash ?

Depending on who you ask, you will receive a very different answer to the question, “How many people play squash?” 

Finding accurate information regarding squash participation is no easy task. However, it is possible to get a general idea based on information provided by some of the larger nations. We’ll allow you to draw your own conclusions about the numbers above and below.

 

Using World Squash Federation’s numbers, 20,000,000 players world-wide and 50,000 courts would require an average of 400 players per court across the globe. 

England

England is regarded as a, if not the, leading squash nation. They have approximately 8,500 courts and 500,000 players[i]. With 500,000 players and 8,500 courts, they have approximately 59 players per court.

Assuming World Squash’s figures, England has roughly 17% of the world’s courts (8,500÷50,000) but only  2.5% of the world’s players (500,000÷20,000,000).

United States

There are approximately 3,700 squash courts in the U.S. The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association estimates approximately 1,100,000 players in the U.S., which suggests 297 players per court.

France

France is hosting the Women’s World Team Championships this year. From their website,[ii] they say France has 250,000 people playing squash on 1,300 courts. This would result in 192 players per court in France.

Australia

According to the Australian Sports Commission, 108,300 people play squash[iii] on approximately 3,500 courts. This suggests approximately 31 players per court.

Canada

According to Squash Ontario[iv], Canada has >250,000 players using 1,810 courts. This suggests >138 players per court in Canada.

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[i] http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102992251297-408/Squash+&+Racketball+England+results.pdf

[ii] http://www.worldwomensquash-nimes2012.fr/en/le-squash/le-squash-dans-le-monde/

[iii] http://fulltext.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/2000/ascpub/pdf/squash%202.pdf

[iv] http://www.squashontario.com/squashlife/demographics.asp

Science and the Major Racket Sports

As athletes, we at times ponder things like the subtle benefits of a sports drink between games compared to a glass of water. And as squash players, we may consider the percentages of our opponent's shot selection being hit from different areas of the court. "If I drop here, is my opponent more likely to re-drop or hit a cross court shot?"

As it turns out a paper was published in 2003 by the Journal of Sports Sciences discussing these points and others in the major racket sports: squash, racquetball, tennis and table tennis.

The author, Adrian Lees, reviewed sports physiology, nutrition, notational analysis, biomechanics, sports medicine and engineering, and psychology. It's not a quick read, but despite its age there are some interesting discoveries.

For example, science has been helpful in defining training programs to improve player fitness, guiding players nutritionally and psychologically in match preparation, and in identifying effective strategies and tactics used for specific opponents. The findings relate to squash as well as other racquet sports.

Some excerpts from the author's findings on physiology and notational analysis are below.

Physiology
  
In a 1998 study, players who used a carbohydrate drink during simulated match play maintained their accuracy at the end of the third game in squash and were 19% better than those who had taken a placebo drink.

According to the study, carbohydrates should also form the basis of post-match meals, which helps in the restoration of muscle and liver glycogen.


Notational Analysis

The process of recording and analyzing the movements made by players during play, or notational analysis, has been widely applied to racket sports.

As part of this study researched discovered that over a period of 15 years, the average number of shots per rally at elite level in squash decreased from 20 to 14. (The paper does not indicate the timing, but presumably the study was done from 1983-1998 when the findings were released.)

 
Researchers were also able to successfully build a probability matrix for squash players depicting the likely shot response to each preceding condition. The author suggests this type of model may be used to identify optimal tactical strategies against a particular opponent.

To read the full 2003 study from the Journal of Sports Sciences, please click here.

The author, Adrian Lees, is from the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool
John Moores University, Liverpool, UK. a.lees@livjm.ac.uk

A Squash Court Hosted the Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was the code name for the federally funded, United States research program to develop an atomic bomb. 

The project was led by Enrico Fermi, Italy's greatest physicist in modern times, and University of Chicago physicist Arthur Compton. Both Fermi and Compton were Nobel Prize recipients.

The team of scientists they led worked on a squash court beneath the long since dismantled west stands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago.

The squash court was the only convenient, large space available on the university campus for the team of scientists to build a "nuclear pile."

The result of their work was the first successful, self-sustaining, chain reaction initiating the controlled release of nuclear energy. Simply stated, it was the first nuclear reactor. 

Immediately after the successful test in 1942, the entire team moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico where they would ultimately conduct, on July 16, 1945, the first successful detonation of an atomic weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico. 

The U.S. wasted no time in using the new technology. On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped "Little Boy," a uranium bomb nicknamed after Franklin Roosevelt, on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later on August 9, 1945, the U.S. dropped "Fat Man," a plutonium bomb nicknamed for Winston Churchill, on Nagasaki, Japan.

On August 15th, a month after the New Mexican test bomb was detonated, Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced their surrender.  

 Earlier articles discussing the squash court connection to the Manhattan Project:

AtomicArchive.com: The First Pile 
The Economist: "From Squash Court to Submarine"
Vanity Fair Squash Blog "The Most Important Squash Court Ever"
Squash Blog Life: "The First Nuclear Squash Court"

Update July 6, 2012: In addition to the articles above, there are many, many more articles, exhibits and books discussing this moment in time. Click on the links below for more information.

Exhibits

University of Chicago: This is a link to the Special Collections Department at the University of Chicago, which built an exhibition to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the events of 1942.

The University of Chicago Archives:  a link to the picture of the squash court where the experiment was hosted

Articles

Library of Congress: This day in history

FermiLab: History and Archives Project of the Enrico Fermi Laboratory

Ames Laboratory: our history

Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Chapter 1, Wartime Laboratory

New York Times: The Day the Nuclear Age was Born

Los Angeles Times: Obituary

Wired: This Day in Tech

Northern Illinois University Library: The Birth of the Atomic Age

Books

The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses and Historians, by Richard Rhodes

Chicago: A Pictorial Celebration

The Manhattan Project: by Sue Vander Hook

The Manhattan Project: by Daniel Cohen

Note: In his book, "Squash: A History of the Game," James Zug states this court was actually a racquets court and not a squash court at all. Zug is a highly regarded historian and his statement should be noted. However, the archivists at the University of Chicago reference the activity taking place on a squash court.

Notable Moments in Men's Professional Squash

1904: The first professional squash tournament in the world was held at the Huntingdon Valley Country Club outside Philadelphia. Six players entered.

1928: The United States Professional Squash Racquets Association (USPSRA) was founded.

1930: USPSRA holds its first pro event in Boston.

1930: 41 year old Charles Read is "appointed" British Open Champion without playing a match.

1931: Don Butcher becomes the first player to actually win the British Open as he beat Charles Read in the unique Challenger format.

1938: Professional doubles squash begins with the founding of the Heights Casino Open in Brooklyn, NY.

1954: Henri Salaun beats Hashim Khan to win the first U.S. Open (hardball tournament) in New York.

1958: Pro squash players Henri Salaun and Diehl Mateer are on the cover of Sports Illustrated

1966:  U.S. Open combines with the Canadian Open to become the North American Open. Mo Khan beats Victor Niederhoffer to win the first tournament title.

1970: Six-time British Open Champion Jonah Barrington organizes a five-man barnstorming tour of Asia to promote and grow the game. 

1973: Based on Barrington's successful efforts, the International Squash Professionals Association (ISPA) is founded with the goal of building a global tour.

1976: ISPA hosts its first World Open tournament.

1978: The USPSRA becomes the World Professional Squash Association (WPSA). All of its tournaments are staged in North America.

1980s-1990s: Doubles squash becomes more active with the growing WPSA tour. They promote six to eight doubles tournaments annually in the 80s and approximately a dozen annually in the 90s.

1983: Jahangir Khan (Pakistan) beats Gamal Awad (Egypt) 3-1 in Chichester, England. The match is the longest in history at 2 hours 46 minutes. Game one lasted 1 hour 15 minutes.

1985: Jahangir Khan (Pakistan) beats Ross Norman (New Zealand) to win the re-launched U.S. Open, now a softball tournament.

1986: Jahangir Khan's winning streak ends at 555 consecutive matches when  Ross Norman  beats him in the finals of the World Open. Khan had not lost a match in 5 years 8 months.

1993: Softball becomes the standard as the WPSA (hardball tour) and the ISPA (softball tour) merge and form the Professional Squash Association (PSA). The ISPA is notably in debt at the time of the merger.

1993: The newly formed PSA struggles mightily for a year and a half losing most of its cash reserves.

1994: Concerned for its survival, the PSA invites former WPSA Board Chairman and successful businessman Jack Herrick to join the PSA Board and to serve as its Chairman. 

2000: Doubles players separate from the singles tour and form the International Squash Doubles Association (ISDA) Tour.  It remains a hardball game.

2004: PSA switches to point a rally scoring to 11 in their match play.

2008: After 14 years as PSA Chairman, Cleveland, OH based Jack Herrick retires. At the time of his retirement, PSA is financially solid and the tour's annual player purse has grown from $1.2 million to $3.1 million.

2009: US Pro Squash hosts its first tournament at Cross Courts Squash Club in Natick, MA.

2010: US Pro Squash re-brands to become Pro Squash Tour (PST).

2010: Ivan Yuen (Malaysia) beats Mudh Asyraf (Malaysia) 3-2 in Kolkata, India.The match lasts 2 hours 43 minutes, the longest match under the Point a Rally scoring system.

2010: Expressing concern for its own future, PSA bans its players from competing in PST tournaments.

2011: PSA financial statements show a sizable operating loss in 2010 and liabilities substantially exceeding assets. An independent auditor has "significant doubt about [PSA's] ability to continue as a going concern." Current PSA Chairman Ziad Al-Turki pledges substantial financial support to cover any short term needs.

2011: Bradley Ball (England) is crowned PST's first World Champion.

2012: PST completes season having promoted more tournaments in the U.S. than any other squash tour.

2012: Wael El Hindi (Egypt) beats David Palmer (Australia) to win the first Pro Squash Tour World Championship Tournament, hosted by the Detroit Athletic Club.

2012: Top ISDA players announce their intent to leave the tour and form a new SDA Pro Tour.

. . .

Appearance Fees in Sport

Appearance Fees

a part of life for independent contractor athletes

Purists wince at the thought of them, but appearance fees are increasingly a part of the deal for athletes competing in individual sports. Guaranteed money is de rigueur for team sports, where athletes regularly demand a signing bonus or guaranteed money to change teams. But guaranteed money in golf, tennis, squash, snooker, darts, and running seems counter to the spirit of the competitions.

Why are appearance fees more prevalent these days? The business of sport is increasingly competitive with regard to sponsorship dollars and ticket sales. Though most tours are structured to require their top names to compete in the biggest events, mid-size tournaments still want to see at least a few stars. And they are willing to set aside money to guarantee their attendance. Additionally, now that sports tour monopolies  are becoming less common, upstart organizations are looking for competitive advantages.

Golf

The PGA of America, for example, forbids appearance fees in its tournaments. So Tiger Woods skipped PGA’s Torrey Pines in January and played an event in the United Arab Emirates as part of the European Tour, where he received a sizable check just for showing up.

According to Yahoo Sports[i], Tiger Woods received between $1.7 million and $2.7 million for playing the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in the United Arab Emirates.

"A lot of the guys play all around the world, and they do get appearance fees,'' Woods told ESPN.[ii] "The only place we don't get it is the U.S.'' 

It is a mostly unspoken fact of life on the European Tour, a look-the-other-way reality that gives events such as this a big advantage in attracting players -- and leaves some PGA Tour tournament directors seething as their rules prevent them from doing the same. The Abu Dhabi event had a purse of $2.7 million. The appearance fees to attract top players were estimated to be in the neighborhood of $5 million, approaching twice as much as the tournament purse. Not surprisingly, 11 of the world’s top 25 players chose to go to Abu Dhabi.

Though the PGA of America forbids any appearance fees, some tournaments have built clever marketing deals with players with a wink and a nod to an implied assurance of participation. But a direct payment remains out of bounds.

The English newspaper The Guardian suggested[iii] that the European Tour’s paying million dollar appearance fees to players like Phil Mickelson may, in time, shift the balance away from the PGA. “The US Tour remains the world's richest tour and over the course of a long season it can be said to attract the best players. But for how much longer?” 

USA Today asked fans if they were ok with Tiger’s appearance fee[iv] and only 12% of fans objected to it.

The people who are more likely to object are the other players whose stature doesn’t yet command a fee or purist fans who would worry that an athlete won’t give his best if he isn’t fighting for every penny. But guaranteeing big names creates big buzz. And buzz is good for sponsors and attendance.

Of course, the world of golf is not the only sport where appearance fees apply.

Tennis

In 2010 the WTA announced it would allow appearance fees in all Sony Ericsson WTA Tour events[v]. The ATP has long allowed guarantees at tournaments below the Grand Slam and Masters level.

Regarding the ATP Tour, ESPN reported in 2011[vi], “playing Grand Slams and Masters-level events . . . is mandatory for ATP pros, but the rules allow 500- and 250- level events (the number is the ranking points earned by the winner) to compete for headliners by offering what are typically six-figure sums to take part.”

According to the Bleacher Report[vii], “The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is the only ATP tour event that manages to attract all the top-level players in a one week, 32-player-size draw contest.” How do they do it? Appearance fees to players: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.    “The tournament distributes a total of $1,700,475 in prize money, and it is estimated that more than three times that amount is paid to the players in the form of appearance fees.”

Auto Racing

In 1986, AJ Foyt made headlines by refusing to show up for a race unless he received an appearance fee.[viii]  “Speed costs money, and I go real fast,” said Foyt.

NASCAR has the Winners Circle Program[ix]. This is a bonus award program that goes to the previous season's top ten winners, by number of races won plus the first two winners in the current season who aren't already in the program. This bonus helps ensure that the sport's big names go to every race.

NASCAR has an additional bonus paid out to any team currently in the top 30 in points which makes the race.

How a driver finished in a given race is only part of the total story. Depending on how they did last year, where they are in the points this year, which sponsor decals are on their car and several other factors could determine whether a driver earns more or less than another driver in the race.

Squash

According to Pro Squash Tour’s Joe McManus, PST has no rules preventing appearance fees. “Yes, when a club or sponsor requests a specific player, we have on occasion incented that pro to attend an event. Sometimes, you have two choices: guarantee a top player's attendance or don't do the event. We would prefer to do the event.”

Snooker

Last December BBC reported[x] on appearance fees which range from £3,000 to £25,000 for top players on the Snooker tour.

Darts

“The professional darts world circuit isn’t quite on the same level as golf or tennis . . . [but] with millions on offer in prize money and appearance fees, and the TV audience demanding some sort of spectacle, darts in the twenty-first century has come a long way. . .”[xi] 

Marathons

CNBC reported on agents telling marathoners not to participate in races when appearance fees were in question[xii].

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[i] http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news?slug=ycn-10905987

[ii] http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/7493655/european-tour-plays-show-money-star-golfers

[iii] http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jan/19/european-tour-pga-abu-dhabi-championship

[iv] http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/01/are-you-okay-with-tiger-woods-taking-appearance-money/1#.T8veVlL0_Hg

[v] http://www.tennis.com/articles/templates/features.aspx?articleid=3231

[vi] http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id/6829700/tennis-how-la-survived-splurging

[vii] http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1090199-professional-tennis-the-dubai-championships-and-the-power-of-money

[viii] http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-03-01/news/8601130090_1_foyt-preston-henn-grand-prix

[ix] http://nascar.about.com/cs/nascar101/a/payouts.htm

[x] http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/snooker/16031545

[xi] The Rough Guide to Cult Sport, p. 99, © 2011,  Penguin Books

[xii] http://www.cnbc.com/id/30307506/Economy_Hits_Marathon_Appearance_Fees