The CIB Egyptian Open and the British Open will be the two top-tier events for next season following a Professional Squash Association tour restructure, with the sport aspiring to grow prize money to £18 million in four years.
The PSA unveiled its new restructure and rebranding with the LA 2028 Olympics in mind. The PSA Tour will be renamed the PSA Squash Tour and will feature four divisions: World Events, Challenger Events, Satellite Events and Federation Events.
READ MORE: What can squash learn from Breaking ahead of LA 2028?
The 2024-25 season will be spearheaded by two Diamond-tier events: the CIB Egyptian Open, which will kick off the World Events calendar on Aug 30 with $325,000 in prize money, and the British Open, which takes place next June.
New Season 🗓️
New Tour Structure 💎
New Logo 🙌 pic.twitter.com/zv4L4y6lwN
— PSA Squash Tour (@PSASquashTour) August 13, 2024
The PSA, which will publish its 2024-25 calendar this week, said on Tuesday that its new tour structure had been developed to create a “more stable and longer-term calendar” of top-tier tournaments in the build-up to the LA Olympics, “as well as placing greater emphasis on increasing the number of Challenger and Satellite tournaments.”
A media release added: “It is envisaged that this will create increased earning potential and playing opportunities for professional squash athletes.”
There will be a maximum of 57 men’s and 57 women’s World Events per season, while two new event tiers – Diamond and Copper – have been created.
How the new PSA Tour will work
Diamond-tier events will offer up a minimum of $300,000 in total player compensation – a figure which will increase each season – and will feature men’s and women’s draws with 48 players in each. Qualifying competitions, featuring 32 men and 32 women, will also be staged before Diamond events, with four players from each draw qualifying for the main draw.
The draw size for Platinum tournaments has been reduced to 32 players per division to increase the earning potential for competing players and safeguard the quality of entries of other World Events.
Copper-tier tournaments sit below Gold, Silver and Bronze tournaments and offer a minimum of $25,000 in total compensation.
Challenger Events will continue to give the world’s most exciting up-and-coming players the opportunity to compete against some of squash’s most experienced professionals, with tournaments offering prize money between $3,000 – $15,000.
Satellite Events and Federation Events are designed to create a pathway for players to join the professional circuit. Federation Events are run under the auspices of the World Squash Federation, regional federations or national federations.
New logos for both the PSA Squash Tour and the PSA as a whole have also been unveiled with a new colour scheme being implemented across all branding materials to redefine the visual identity of professional squash.
What the PSA say…
“The unveiling of our new tour structure marks the next chapter for professional squash,” said PSA chief executive Alex Gough.
“The new PSA Squash Tour structure has been designed to create a consistent and high- quality calendar of tournaments at the World Events level, whilst also accelerating the growth of the professional game across the board.
“This new tour structure forms a key part of PSA’s long-term strategy, with our aim by the end of the 2027-28 season to increase the total amount of events on the tour to over 1,500 and grow total player compensation to $18,000,000.
“It was also important for us to refresh and modernise our logo and branding to better reflect our brand values as we embark on this new chapter. With the creation of our new tour structure and the LA 2028 Olympic Games on the horizon, it’s an exciting time to be involved in professional squash.”