December 6, 2024
The “Squash Court Graveyard” is a new report that catalogues all the squash venues that have been removed from the global database of the Squash Players App (SPA). As a community-driven resource, SPA is the world’s largest and most comprehensive crowdsourced app dedicated to improving and maintaining data about squash courts and venues globally. But as the list of active squash venues grows, there’s also a sadly inevitable reality: some venues are lost along the way.
https://squash.players.app/squash-court-graveyard/
The Squash Court Graveyard (SCG) is a record of these lost places—those that, for various reasons, have been deleted or archived from our database. The “Cause of Death,” as detailed in the report, provides some insight into why these venues disappear. The reasons are as follows:
- All courts have been removed or repurposed (73)
- Courts have never been here (88)
- Duplicate of another place (212)
- Moved to a new location (10)
- Other (109)
- Venue is permanently closed (100)
The numbers in brackets represent the number of venues, globally, in this category, as at early December 2024.
While most of these causes are self-explanatory, some deserve a little extra detail. For instance, when we say, “Courts have never been here,” or “Duplicate of another place” it is often the result of (well-intentioned) human error. It’s not uncommon for a sports centre to be listed in the app along with a separate listing for the squash club that operates there. In these cases, we accidentally count the venue twice—a double entry that ultimately has to be corrected. When faced with these duplicates, we generally retain the physical sports centre and delete the duplicate squash club entry, as the former represents the physical “bricks & mortar” entity while the latter is more of a human construct.
The reasons that sadden us the most are those where all courts have been removed or repurposed or the venue has permanently closed. These represent a significant loss for the squash community, and the impact is felt both locally and globally. Each of these closures is a small but painful reminder of the challenges that squash as a sport is facing today, from declining participation to changing priorities for multi-sport facilities.
The mechanism by which venues get deleted from the SPA is twofold:
- Manual Recommendation: Any user can click the ‘Recommend venue for deletion’ button in the app if they believe the venue no longer exists or is not active. This action then alerts us to investigate further—our team checks for authenticity before approving or denying the deletion request.
- Automatic Detection: Every venue listed in the SPA is linked to a corresponding Google Maps listing. If Google Maps marks a venue as “Permanently Closed,” our system eventually detects this change and takes appropriate action.
How “accurate” is our data? It’s as accurate as WE (this means YOU!) choose to make it!
The global squash community is crucial to keeping our database accurate. Squash enthusiasts—players, coaches, and fans—are our “eyes and ears,” helping to ensure the information we provide remains as up-to-date as possible. We invite everyone to participate in this ongoing effort by downloading the Squash Players App, which is free for both Android and iOS. Once you’ve installed it, check out your local squash venues and make sure that the information is correct. If something is amiss, you can often make the updates directly through the app.
Together, we can keep the vibrant spirit of squash alive, one venue at a time. Whether it’s celebrating a newly discovered court or preserving the memory of a lost one, every contribution counts. Let’s make sure the Squash Court Graveyard doesn’t grow faster than it needs to.
Thank you for being a part of this important effort!