28/04/2005
Dramatic Venues a Big
Games Plus for Squash
Squash's ability to be staged in dramatic venues could be a strength in the sport's bid for Olympic recognition ...

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

LONDON (Reuters) - Having been staged in front of dramatic backdrops like the Great Pyramids in Egypt, squash can offer some of the most memorable and photogenic venues in global sport. 

Hardly surprisingly, this is one of its greatest strengths and a powerful marketing tool as the racket sport bids to appear at the Olympics for the first time.

Squash has been shortlisted with golf, rugby, roller sports and karate for possible inclusion at the 2012 Games and could be added to the program if any of the existing 28 sports is removed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on July 8.

All 28 Olympic sports will face the vote in Singapore and must win a majority from IOC members to avoid being dropped from the list. If a sport is axed, the IOC executive board will select a replacement from a list of the five applicants.

The sport recommended by the executive board to replace an outgoing sport would first need a two-thirds majority to become an "Olympic sport" and would then need a simple majority in a second vote to be admitted to the 2012 Games program.

Should squash get the nod, the possibilities for venues are dramatic and virtually endless.

One of Paris, London, New York, Madrid and Moscow will be voted by the IOC as the host city for 2012 on July 6, and all five can provide evocative settings for a sport like squash, which can use a transportable state-of-the-art, all-glass court.

POSSIBLE BACKDROPS

In Paris, possible backdrops include the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre and the Louvre. In London, there is St Pauls Cathedral, the London Eye or the Houses of Parliament.

New York has Times Square, Grand Central Station and the Empire State building while Madrid has the Prado Museum and the Royal Palace. In Moscow, Red Square and the Kremlin immediately come to mind.

"Flexibility is one of our greatest strengths," World Squash Federation chief executive Christian Leighton told Reuters.

"We are a sport that can go indoors or outdoors and be played in a singles or a doubles format.

"Perhaps most significantly, though, we can put up a glass squash court right next to a structure like the Eiffel Tower, which would make an iconic photograph for the history of the Games.

"Some sports have to utilise a lot of marketing money to attract spectators. In squash, we don't need to have that problem and people can get really close to the action when they watch our sport."

There have been several shining examples of squash being played out in spectacular surrounds.

GIZA PYRAMIDS

Best known is the Al Ahram Open, which is staged in front of the Pyramids at Giza in Egypt, while the long-standing Tournament of Champions in New York takes place inside Grand Central train station.

On the professional women's tour, the Hurghada International is held on a small island in the Red Sea which is connected to the Egyptian coastline by a walkway. The all-glass court for the tournament has boats moored up close by.

While flexibility and imagery of venue is undoubtedly the biggest selling point, squash has other attributes.

"Squash is a very athletic sport and we can provide a guarantee that our top players, both men and women, would all attend the Olympic Games if we were voted in as a sport," said Leighton.

"Squash is also a truly universal game. We have 125 national member federations, all of which organize their own national championships, and there has been notable growth over the last decade in Europe, Oceania and Central America.

"Then there is the question of cost and complexity. In squash, we would provide an Olympic program featuring just 64 athletes, 32 for the men's singles and 32 for the women's singles.

"The event would be played over six days and would require just two glass courts, costing in total just $250,000."

While sports like tennis and golf would struggle to get players to view the Olympics in the same regard as a grand slam event or a major championship, squash has no such problem.

"Our athletes are dying to participate," added Leighton. "The Olympics would be seen as the pinnacle event in squash.

"Jahangir Khan, the great Pakistan player of the 1980s and arguably the greatest squash player in history, said recently in an interview his only regret in his sporting life was never being able to compete at an Olympics."

Original article from Reuters

Great Squash Venues - SquashPics Gallery