PSA Unveils New Three-Year Calendar

The Professional Squash Association (PSA) has announced the introduction of a new three-year calendar which will come into effect across the professional circuit with immediate effect as the 2014/15 season gets underway.

Following a significant consultation process with the sport's major stakeholders, the new structure will see squash's top level of competition, the PSA World Series, limited to eight events per year, excluding the annual World Championship and World Series Finals, with each tournament in the series required to commit to a minimum three-year presence on the calendar.

The move is a first for squash at the elite level as the professional game previously operated on a year-to-year basis and will also see the current World Series Gold and World Series Platinum event standards amalgamated to ensure parity in prize money across the sport's top event-tier.

"Ensuring that the sport has a well structured annual season which is planned in advance is vital in ensuring the sport of squash can continue to grow sustainably on a global scale," said PSA Chief Executive Alex Gough.

"Moving from a position of annual insecurity to a new, three-year, calendar will ensure our players can focus their training to be at their best for the toughest competitions and allows us to continue to build on the sport's burgeoning popularity.

"We also feel that having a secured, structured format for the World Series will markedly increase our commercial and broadcast appeal, providing us with a platform from which we can fully focus on increasing the sport's profile around the world."

The PSA World Championship, the most prestigious title in squash, and World Series Finals, the end of season finale to the PSA World Series, will continue to be held on an annual basis taking place in October/November and May/June, respectively. Further details regarding the World Series Finals will follow in the next few weeks.

Details of the confirmed 2014-2017 PSA World Series calendar will be also be finalised in the coming weeks with events such as New York's iconic J.P Morgan Tournament of Champions, staged in Grand Central Terminal, and the long-standing Cathay Pacific Sung Hung Kai Financial Hong Kong Open having already committed to the new agreement.