Growing the Game, Shrinking the Player: The Structural Failure of Professional Squash, 2018–2025

Abstract

Professional squash has experienced substantial prize money growth between 2018 and 2025, yet the economic conditions facing the majority of PSA World Tour players have stagnated or worsened. Squash’s inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics has been celebrated as validation of the sport’s trajectory. The data suggest a different reading: Olympic inclusion is arriving at precisely the moment when the economic infrastructure required to capitalise on it does not exist. This thesis develops a nine-indicator Economic Welfare Score (EWS), comprising inequality, scale, and player welfare dimensions, and applies it to PSA tournament and player earnings data across seven seasons (2018–2025). The analysis establishes that PSA’s composite economic score in 2024–25 remains below its 2018–19 baseline. Benchmarked against the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) across all nine indicators, the divergence is stark: ATP’s equivalent score has risen substantially over the same period, driven by institutional capital, broadcast infrastructure, and a restricted player pool. Five econometric models confirm the structural mechanisms driving this divergence. Rank is a near-deterministic predictor of whether a player can earn a living wage, independent of season-level conditions. Calendar expansion has mechanically worsened earnings inequality, as tournament growth has outpaced prize pool growth and compressed the median purse. These relationships are stable across all model specifications. The thesis concludes that PSA prize pool growth represents structural divergence from ATP, not convergence. The tour has expanded its roster considerably, but the overwhelming majority of additional players earn below any reasonable subsistence threshold. Structural reform, comprising centralised broadcast rights, a restricted player ceiling, and prize redistribution away from lower-tier events, is the prerequisite for economic progress, not further calendar expansion.