The purse is held by those who own the bricks and mortar.
If we detach ourselves from the playing part of our squash venues and focus on our shopping complexes, for example, the owners of the buildings are continually trying to improve the centres to make them more attractive for patrons; as well as trying to utilise every bit of available floor area which in turn increases the annual income.
As well shopping complexes encourage Banks, Post Offices, etc (a large variety of sectors too) and bends over backwards as this attracts more traffic through the centre.
They have surveys about the parking facilities, etc. to make certain entry and exit is ok - they refurbish every 10 years at least, and I could ramble on.
You ever been in a squash survey?

Squash centres probably are now more Sports Centres, and have gyms, indoor basketball, etc operating too increase the turnover, but basically the centres are vacant half the day - dead. The "dead" is where the "cream" is which in turn can finance some of the promotion etc required.

Squash has to have more programs to offer to get more patronage, eg Co-ordinated Kids Programs (hopping, jumping, skipping, rolling, catching, hitting, throwing) for Pre Schoolers; Squockey for Primary school kids (modified type hockey) which develops hitting skills; Mini Squash (for those who want to go into Junior Squash);  Swot for kids  and seniors/retired which has a bouncier ball like a half-court tennis ball, and mostly will use 3-walls.

Viper - squash committees are not really interested when you go off on this tangent as they are primarily concerned about the conducting of club competitions.  There cannot be competitions without people signing up for play.  Yeah?.

Looking at facts and stats - in Brisbane we had about 115 centres (about 600 courts) in the late 1980's; our population was about 1m; the City is divided into 14 Regions with the inner population per region 60,000 (and now has about 80,000) the outer regions 30,000 (now 40,000 probably a younger age).  In the 1980's there were about 3 centres per region in the inner areas  (total 20/24 courts);  presently we would be hard pressed to have  one centre per region (6/8 courts).

All of our present problems (and other sports as well like tennis) is about the land value outweighing the viability of the business, due mainly to the lack of foresight of the court owner.   The ministry love our squash court buildings, with large areas under cover, and they make wonderful churches!  Sad but true.
 

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thanks for the feedback gwl and, of course, viper. it is always good to other perspectives, so that they might shine some light on the problem.

regular readers of this forum will know that this has been a very well discussed topic obver the pas 12 months or so and not everyone agrees with my assertion that most, although not all, of the responsibility of promotion rests with the club or centre operator. and although i have  operated at just about every level of squash, from club volunteer to the number 2 position in national administration and have had success at just about every level, no one wants to listen to me.

you may know that i have developed a sports management system and although it works better than anything that is currently available, I have not exactly been knocked down in the rush to implement it. Not long ago, I decided to scrap the software and develop it as an online web application. this is now well advanced  - i will post when it it available for trial - probably in the next couple of weeks. I am hoping (and the early signs are good) that the next online version will have a greater impact.

i suppose what i am try to say is that the problems are not insurmountable, but there is actually a theory behind the right approach and that theory works! I made a valid if clumsy attempt to expound this in a resource manual I wrote and edited a few years ago which is available from Squash Australia still, I believe. (Rita also had a hand in it). Some club and centre owners have taken up the ideas and had success, but really, that was 10 years behind the times when it was written - we were just playing catch up.

The thing is, many of the problems that gwl has identified, have simple solutions. the caveat, is that for them to be truly solved, it needs action from all stakeholders. it can be done partially at the local level, but that does not solve, for example, the fact that more needs to be done at state and national level, to promote the game.

this applies in all markets where Squash is a reasonable popular pursuit.

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Ray, you'll have me getting my hanky out if you don't cheer up.
Thank heavens I played in the days when the slogan was
"Vital People Play Squash"  and lots wanted to join in too.

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It is hard to manage teams and to ensure people are able to play week in, week out.

Yes it does come down to the club, and also to the team to ensure players are keen to play and want to participate throughout the season. The club does need to have a strong body of volunteers to help support the management of the inhouse comps. This can usually be a sign of a healthy club.

Responsibility also falls on the competition's regional body to ensure players and teams are appropriately graded to ensure a fair and competitive competition (if you know what I mean?). They also have the ability to review the structure of the competition and the overseeing rules. So other things to consider at this level are whether the length of a season is too long (or too short), the number of members in a team, the scoring system. Perhaps players can't always commit to a 6 month season, perhaps only 2 player teams is more appropriate for today's social environment (2 single matches-best of 3 or 5 games? and 1 doubles match?), perhaps the point-a-rally 11 or 15 is another alternative. I can also see how challenging a task it would be to have to assess and determine the grades and teams for a competition given so many variables to the problem.

Where does the responsbility of the marketing and advertising for the game squash lie? Well, in my humble opinion this lies at every level (down to the player promoting the sport to their friends).

I hear what you are saying (or rather written), and it is also depressing knowing that clubs around town are closing down to be replaced by the more profitable utilisation of space activities such as the gym and aerocbics, but I still have hope that I too can become one of the "old fogeys" to give the young whipper snappers a run for their money, because if it's something I've learnt in this game is to never ever underestimate a player because of their sex, age, size (weight or height), or even one's physical handicap. I do what I can in my own club and support the younger players representing state juniors and also those who want to participate in the local tournaments. It is the encouragement and experience that we can gain from today's "old fogeys" that  is to be bottled somehow.

But somehow, I do feel that there does need to be some review at a higher body level than the club to help strengthen the promotion of the sport. Even the introduction of the Twenty20 cricket style has brought back the backyard style game which more people can relate too.

Otherwise, as much as I hate to write it, I fear that regional competition squash will slowly die, leaving only the inhouse club level competition...which may also inevitably die when clubs don't get a required financial income to support the centre operators et al.

Now I am totally depressed.  No not really...because I came back from a fixture match tonight and am still on a high from winning in 4, after losing in 4 to the same guy back in the 1st round. But even tonight, it was an "old fogey" who gave me some excellent (and always appreciated) advice and encouragement that will keep me motivated to improve my own game. So I see that individuals can make a difference, and I am proud to say that I see this happening in my club. But not every player always gets the much needed encouragement.

There are so many circumstances that make for running a competition difficult. People get injured, have to travel for work, get sick, go on holidays, have exams or assignments due, unexpected events etc...this is well understood and accepted by hopefully everyone and nothing can be done about such circumstances, but certainly communication (keeping team members in the loops) is a big key to ensure knowing when players are available or rostered on to play so that one can organise and plan around the already somewhat committed season schedule.

No need to be depressed, because it is through your contributions here that DOES offer something to everyone who has a spark of a squashie in them.

I look forward to reading about your comeback trail once you are ready to get back into the fixtures.

Alright, enough of my ramblings...besides, it's not like I've added anything new, perhaps just vented some of my frustrations...

Cheers,

gwl

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I have to concur on every observation.

Masters night is pretty busy but underneath the number of grades is dissapearing each year, mid week mens and women are shrinking even faster, and what is worse most of the people propping up the declining midweek are the older folk from masters !

In a couple of years pennant is going to be decimated.

I do not know who's responsibility it is but the blame lies in the sport being invisible in schools, until that changes - it is bye bye squash at a fast rate.

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