Squash360.com Closing

By WesternMass-Squash • Published on November 13, 2008 • Articles

Western Mass — On November 21st, Squash360.com will end its yearlong run. The site covered squash topics that were not regularly discussed on other squash websites, such as squash business, training, video interviews, and opinion pieces.

Squash360 presented multiple sides of an issue. It often published conflicting opinion pieces and let the reader form his or her own opinion on the issue. Occasionally, the site became a soapbox for an issue; however, its coverage of such topics as the governance of the Professional Squash Association, the Olympic movement, and Point-A-Rally scoring benefited the entire squash community.

Shawn Patton, the owner and editor of Squash360, is a very passionate and controversial individual in the squash community. He is a squash addict from British Columbia, Canada, who is a former A level player. Alex Beam’s Vanity Fair Squash Blog recently discussed Patton:

Shawn has an operatic demeanor. He sends out a lot of e-mail blasts that can’t help but annoy the people trying to run the sport. As he admits, the squash world is so small, and so lacking in “resources” (read: money) that accusations of mismanagement and bad faith aren’t always warmly received. “I want to cover the parts of the game that haven’t been covered,” he explains. “I’m not an investigative reporter but I’m the closest thing to it. We’re not just writing puff pieces.” Like the other Web sites.

Shawn knows all the challenges squash faces in the sports world; he once organized a tournament himself, and he admits it was uphill sledding. “I really want to improve the management of our sport,” he says. “I want the pro game to be successful”

Since the beginning of Squash360, Western Mass Squash has discussed squash with Patton. He is an individual with a truely impressive Rolodex of squash contacts. Despite his busy schedule, his passion was obvious. He wanted Squash360 to become the site for all squash players.

The past few months have not been ideal for squash websites. SquashNow, whose chief reporter was Colin McQuillan, closed on October 8th. The statement announcing the closing was simple, like SquashNow’s design:

That’s All Folks…We Are Now Officially Done

SquashSite (and its French counterpart SiteSquash) announced its closure on October 19th. SquashSite had been negotiating with the Professional Squash Association (PSA) to become the Association’s official website; however, after negotiations ended unsuccessfully, SquashSite was faced with a tough decision.

On October 19th, Steve Cubbins and Framboise Gommendy, SquashSite’s and SiteSquash’s owners and founders, explained their sites’ closure in greater detail:

For a while now we’ve been struggling to find a way to keep it going, and the conclusion is that it just isn’t financially viable - never was - so we have no choice but to close and go back to our real lives.

However, the announcement appears to have been a ploy. SquashSite reopened eight days later. The site claims it was inundated with business propositions:

One in particular attracted our attention, from Mick Todd, Pontefract Squash Club owner and James Willstrop’s manager among other things, who made us a ‘proposition we couldn’t refuse.’

“You two just keep on doing what you are doing best, as in letting the world know about squash, and you let me handle the rest. How does that sound?”

SquashSite’s recent closure and reopening was the deciding factor in Patton’s decision to end Squash360. In Patton’s “Thank You & Good Bye” article, he makes the following statement:

SquashSite’s feigned closure, re-capitalization and re-organization has caused much soul searching and a two paths diverged in the wood moment for me and squash360.com.

It crystallized a need for Shawn and Squash360 to unequivocally either:

1. try and find partners, resources to have any hope of effectively “competing” head-to-head or becoming a credible supplement to their dominant web offering or
2. use the website as a “soap box” or vehicle to communicate some last unvarnished, uncensored ideas, concerns and then “Ride into Sunset.”

To be blunt, I have no plans, ideas, energy or interest in going cap in hand for #1 above. This [is] against my capitalist values and would be hypocritical as I believe this was the tactic of squashsite in their announced “closure.”
…
Quite frankly I am emotionally, physically and financially spent. I have realized with much regret, I don’t have any of the reserves necessary to be able/willing to continue the uphill battle. The light at the end of the tunnel is quite simply not getting or likely to get brighter.

Patton promoted all levels of squash and squash websites. On the Western Mass front, he republished and linked to articles from Western Mass Squash and Tim Bacon’s Science of Coaching Squash.

There are a limited number of quality squash websites in the world. Squash360 will be missed.