Increase of $193k for women’s squash prize money since PSA merger
By NATHAN CLARKE
Just months after the Women’s Squash Association (WSA) and Professional Squash Association (PSA) joined forces to create one unified governing body responsible for the administration of professional squash, figures released by the PSA show that available prize money on the Women’s Tour has gone up by almost 30%.
The two organisations amalgamated on January 1st, 2015 and since then the Women’s Tour has recorded growth of over 28% year-on-year during the period January-June alone – resulting in an increase of $193K in available prize money compared to the same period in 2014.
Total projected growth for the 2015 calendar year is set to continue at above 28% – a total prize money increase of around $330K – while during the same January-June timeframe the Men’s Tour grew by 6.5%, an increase of almost $100K year-on-year.
Projected growth for the Men’s Tour across 2015 stands at over 10%, which would result in a prize money increase of over $350K.
“Since becoming one association responsible for the administration of both men’s and women’s professional squash we’ve been pleased with the progress that we’ve been able to make in regards to increasing both playing opportunities and earning potential for our male and female athletes,” said PSA Chief Executive Alex Gough.
“Our success in this short time frame bodes well for the future and gives us confidence that we will be able to succeed in our goals to continue to increase revenue earning potential across the sports whilst driving closer towards a parity in prize money situation.
“The US Open led the way by becoming the first tournament to offer equal prize money for women in 2013 and we’ve been delighted to see further events follow suit in 2015 as part of a trend that we hope to see continued in the future and with several commercial opportunities within the sport still untapped we are confident that we can continue to grow apace and are excited about the future of the sport in what is an new era of governance for the professional game.”
PSA Director Ashley Bernhard added: “The growth we’ve seen across both the men’s and women’s tours so far in 2015 has been hugely encouraging and with many of our top tournaments already supporting a move towards equal prize money over the course of the next few years the future of the PSA looks bright.
“We look forward to working further with our partners over the coming years as we continue to drive the sport forward across all areas.”