Prize money total soars 11% to $6.4m
By SEAN REUTHE
The Professional Squash Association (PSA) today announced that a record level of prize money was available on the PSA World Tour during the 2017-18 season, with total financial compensation reaching $6.4 million, an 11% increase on the previous season.
The pay gap between female and male players dropped by almost a third last season, with total prize money on the women’s tour totalling $2,599,000 million – a 31% increase compared to 2016-17 – while the men’s has increased to $3,820,000.
This trend is reflected in both the men’s and women’s top earners. The top earning female player on the PSA World Tour earned $218,814 last season – a 93% increase since the PSA and Women’s Squash Association (WSA) merged in 2015 to create a unified governing body.
The top earning male player earned $278,231 last season, which has increased 72% over the past three seasons. There have also been vast prize money increases for the world’s top 25 ranked players across both the men’s and women’s tours during this period, with average earnings rising by 37% in the men’s and 63% in the women’s.
The prize money was split across 227 events (146 men and 81 women) in a total of 47 countries, while tournaments were staged in eight new countries during the 2017-18 season: Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Kuwait, Nigeria, Romania and Saudi Arabia.
“Squash has been through a period of unprecedented growth over the past decade and we are delighted that we can back that up with these record figures,” said PSA Chief Commercial Officer Tommy Berden.
“One of the key goals of the merger between PSA and WSA was to strive for equality in both prize money and playing opportunities and, since we took control of the administration of both men’s and women’s squash three years ago, we have made significant strides in both of these areas.
“We believe that professional squash has never been in better shape and, with the 2018-19 PSA World Championships in Chicago set to become the sport’s first one million dollar tournament in February 2019, we are confident that the sport will continue to grow during the upcoming season.”
Article by SEAN REUTHE (PSA Media and PR Manager). Edited by ALAN THATCHER
Picture courtesy of PSA