Behind the Scenes
Happy New Year, and I hope all your New Year resolutions are well on their way (and include bringing a new player to squash and playing more yourself). 
Whilst this newsletter covers events and happenings from December 2025, I thought I’d take this opportunity to get a jump start on 2026.
Board Strategic Planning Day
The Board will be getting together on Friday 23 January for a full day of strategic planning, to determine the priorities for 2026, as it’s set to be a busy one!
World Masters Squash Championships
The WORLD Masters is hitting Perth from 30 August through to 6 September, with Squash Australia expecting 1,000 participants with a partner/support person in tow. The WA State Squash Centre, Belmont, and Squashworld Mirrabooka will be the venue for the majority of matches, while a full glass court will be erected in the middle of Karrinyup Shopping Centre!
Registrations are open so if you haven’t yet registered, click HERE to do so.
Registering as a Member MATTERS
A Perth Metro facility is currently under threat of losing one of their courts to gym group activities. The club is fighting to retain this squash court and in so doing was asked to provide membership data.
Offering Revo membership data makes it a challenging argument, as we all know, the low number of registrations do not account for the hundreds of people who frequent the courts as their individual information is not being captured in any way. This poses a huge problem for not just this facility, but the sport of squash as a whole. If all those hundreds of players across WA were registered in the system, it’s highly unlikely that facilities would explore other options.
Over the last couple months, there have been a number of conversations about why players, ex-players, supporters, etc. do or don’t register as a member of Squash WA. In each case, the person on the other end of the conversation has suggested a reminder should be sent out to our squash community, whether it be as a refresher or new education, hence this writeup.
FACTS:
- Squash WA has two main sources of income annually – government funding and player membership registrations.
- Other income such as grants and sponsorship are ad hoc, unreliable and consume a huge amount of office time in the application, execution, and acquittal process.
- There are currently 92 different types of sports in WA. Huge isn’t it? This means that squash is competing against 91 other sports, in trying to get people playing our amazing game.
- As the economy tightens up, funding sources are reducing, and what is out there is also being chased by those 91 other sports. Almost all grants and sponsorships are tied to an event. Squash WA runs these events to break even, with any surplus funds being reinvested into our sport.
HOW is our government funding determined?
- Each and every year, Squash WA office staff complete a Sports Governance Survey, Industry Census, and provide membership statistics.
- The information is then evaluated by CITS (Department of Creative Industries, Tourism and Sports), and we are ‘graded’ using a standardised scale, in each of the three areas, based on our performance, level of governance, and carrying the most weight - the number of members. The score from the scale then determines the level of financial support received from CITS.
- The more members we have in Revo, whether Digital, Social, Local or Compete, the higher our score, and in turn the higher our funding. It’s that simple.
WHO is and isn’t registering?
- It appears that only people that are playing in Club competitions, pennants/league and/or tournaments are registering into Revo.
- There are different membership levels to suit most scenarios, so in essence, every single person playing squash can be accounted for.
WHY should you register?
- The Squash WA office is made up of the equivalent of two full-time employees. The office is at capacity but there is so much more we would like to be doing to give squash a big push, but funding and resources are limited.
- When you register as a member in Revo, Squash WA gets a portion of funding that goes towards wages in the office. More registrations = more revenue. More revenue = more staff. More staff = more service to our clubs and players; paid staff who can take the load off volunteers, and all of this in turn = investment in the FUTURE of squash.
- Fewer registrations = less income, less staff, less services, and means club volunteers and court operators will need to take on more.
- If Squash WA ceased to exist tomorrow, who would run pennants, arrange State Junior Teams, all major tournaments, volunteer awards nights, and more?
- Squash is a not-for-profit community sport, currently without the means to derive other income to support the sport.
- All of us playing squash now, are able to play because people before us paid memberships, and there were a lot more of players. Now it’s on ALL of us to be members to secure the future of squash for ourselves and our juniors.
- The obvious reasons such as player insurance, SquashTV access, rankings system, supporting office functions, etc. all still apply.
If you’ve wondered why squash as a sport struggles, these two barriers come up time after time:
- Lack of visibility (eg. events and results being televised).
- Lack of data on the ACTUAL number of people playing.
Think about it…soccer, AFL, NRL, etc. are all supported at grassroots level, and the state and national bodies know who all their players and participants are.
If you are reading this, it is likely that you are a supporter of squash and doing your bit to contribute to growing the sport – THANK YOU! If you are not a member, please consider joining now. Links to register with your local club are on Revo HERE.
Squash was once a shining light of Australian sport, but in the past 20 years the number of venues available to us has more than halved. Many of you reading this will remember seeing squash courts in every suburb, a time when EVERYONE knew what squash was.
In the last five years or so, we have seen a definite resurgence, and are on a MISSION to keep this momentum going. So, get on board knowing that YOUR contribution is helping us grow our sport. Your annual membership registration, no matter what level, supports squash today and ensures its future.
If you’d like to help further, it will cost you nothing – please encourage your friends, family, and social playing partners to register in Revo, so we can continue this resurgence of squash in WA.
Happy squashing!
Leigh-Anne Kaye
General Manager
Squash WA |
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