The future of squash: Ed Alvarez shows how clubs must be run as a business for our game to recover

By Alan Thatcher

April 27, 2021 - 8:03am

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‘Hoping that gyms will be loyal to squash is wishful thinking’ 
By EDUARDO ALVAREZ – Squash Mad Columnist

I am writing from the squash ghost town of Toronto, Canada. As COVID-19 continues to keep our sport on pause, and I look at the struggles of non-profit, squash-only clubs, it might be worth taking a deep dive into the health club business.

Let’s first look at the types of facilities or clubs where squash exists in North America. Affordable squash is generally available at three types of venues:

1: Municipal recreational or leisure centers
2: Commercial independent and chain gyms
3: Non-profit, volunteer squash clubs

Other squash venues, like exclusive private clubs and academic institutions, are generally not open to the public at large.

In your local commercial gym and recreation center, squash is a side offering and not typically run as a business with a separate focus on profit and loss. It is also not a huge profit center. In recent history, squash has not had to be a proven business with return on investment (ROI). The sport’s existence has been supported by the more lucrative and universally profitable fitness offerings and sometimes tennis.

In today’s market, we have an assumption that our courts will simply continue to exist in these environments, magically paid for by a third party, and we are stunned when they are removed. As these courts disappear, in ever-increasing numbers, so too does affordable and available squash.

As a side note, there also seems to be no awareness of these closures and court removals. Squash focuses publicity on elite groups, coaching academies, tournaments and talent pathways. But court closures are always accompanied by an embarrassed silence.

It’s the big elephant in the room for nearly every squash federation. The removal of two courts in a commercial gym is a big deal when they are the only courts in the area. This is erosion; quiet and subtle.

Right now, squash courts that are affordable to those on modest incomes are disappearing much faster than the shiny, expensive, bespoke facilities being created for elite college players and small urban academies. 

Hoping that commercial gyms and recreation centers will be loyal to squash is wishful thinking. They are businesses, and will simply respond to market demand in terms of additions or changes to their offering. Squash courts can be removed as easily as dated fitness equipment.

This means that our sport has little control over our fate in these environments. We are merely a side offering that can quickly be replaced for other more popular activities. The addition of squash courts to new gyms and recreational facilities is, therefore, also out of our control.

Our sport is on the chopping block with lucrative, paid-for group training, functional personal training rooms and indoor cycling being on trend. Our beloved squash courts are perfect for these uses.

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In some ways, squash has never really proven to be a successful commercial model, which can be repeated, franchised and copied. We seem to have existed in other facilities, as I say, merely as a side offering.

Our non-profit clubs are often not run as a “business” and are subject to the direction of volunteers, who may have personal agendas or lack experience in the health club space (or any kind of club management skills). Or they treat it simply as a hobby. Or these clubs may be hijacked by parents, whose priorities are to provide benefits for their own children rather than attempting to grow the game or the club.

So, where are we? North American recreation industry insiders like IHRSA and SGB are reporting significant decline in squash participation pre-Covid. This means that investors and municipalities will be reluctant to include squash courts in any new projects and will likely continue removing them.

Pickleball, it’s a big dill. But don’t laugh — this sport is on fire.