One of Britain's most prestigious racket clubs has just told a planning committee that its squash courts have "poor viewing facilities". That admission, buried in a planning application, is the most useful thing said about UK squash clubs all year — because it identifies the problem almost every operator has and almost nobody is spending money to fix.
The Queen's Club, best known for its pre-Wimbledon tennis, has lodged application P/2026/01486/FUL with Hammersmith and Fulham Council to build two additional squash courts at its West Kensington base. Public consultation runs until 12 August. The club already has three singles courts. It isn't asking for two more of the same.
What Is Queen's Club Actually Proposing?
The two new courts are designed around spectators, not just players. One is a doubles court; the other is built for exhibition singles. Both sit on the ground floor of a new extension with tiered seating and a viewing gallery installed above them. To make room, the existing Fitness Studio is displaced and rebuilt on the second floor, where the Billiards Room currently sits.
Read that again. A club with serious property constraints in one of the most expensive postcodes in Britain is giving up a gym and a billiards room to build squash courts people can sit and watch. That is not a participation decision. It is a commercial one.
Why Does Spectator Squash Matter to a Four-Court Club in Bolton?
Because squash's structural weakness has never been the sport itself — it's that squash is nearly invisible inside its own venues. A traditional court is a white box behind a door. Nobody walking past sees a match. Nobody in the bar watches one. Nobody films anything worth posting.
Compare that to what padel got right. Glass-walled courts made padel a spectacle by accident: every match is a live advert to everyone else in the building, and every rally is filmable. That visibility is a large part of why padel recruited a million UK players in a few short years while squash spent the same period clawing its way back to pre-pandemic numbers — 287,000 adults playing twice a month in England, according to Sport England's Active Lives data, still just shy of the 294,000 recorded in 2018/19.
Viewing turns squash into an event, and events fill off-peak hours
A court you can watch supports club nights, box league finals, inter-club fixtures and junior showcases — all at the times your courts are otherwise empty and your bar is otherwise quiet. Off-peak court time is worth nothing unsold. An event that fills it, sells food and drink, and gives forty people a reason to be in the building beats a single £12 court booking every time.
People join sports they have watched someone play
The recruitment funnel for squash is unusually dependent on personal introduction. Removing the wall between "member playing" and "guest watching" is the cheapest way to widen it — which is why the Queen's Club application references promoting improved facilities to professionals, members and guests.
The Crystal Palace Warning
Now the uncomfortable part. On 23 July, Bromley Council unanimously approved the £130m GLA-funded redevelopment of Crystal Palace National Sports Centre — a 25,000-seat stadium, restored 50m pool, 100m indoor track, climbing centre, 3x3 basketball, five-a-side pitches and a six-court padel centre. Completion is expected by 2028.
There is no squash provision in the plans, at a site that previously had it.
That is the direction of travel for public money: padel gets the courts, squash gets a mention in the history section. Squash's Olympic debut at LA 2028 and the £500,000 UK Sport awarded for the LA cycle are real, but that money goes to elite athletes, not to your club's facilities. If your venue is waiting for a grant-funded revival, the Crystal Palace decision is your answer.
What UK Squash Club Operators Should Do This Quarter
- Make one court watchable. You don't need a planning application. Glass back wall, a bench, decent lighting, and a camera mount on one court changes what that court is for.
- Programme it hard. Friday night box league finals with the bar open. A monthly exhibition with your club pro. Junior finals night with parents in seats.
- Film everything. Squash is a genuinely great short-form video sport once there's an angle to shoot from. That footage is the raw material for local Meta and Instagram campaigns — and it costs you nothing but the setup.
- Capture the people who turn up. Spectators are your warmest possible leads. Get every name at the door and into a CRM so the follow-up actually happens. Rally AI automates exactly that sequence: enquiry logged, welcome sent, beginners course offered, no volunteer required.
- Run local search alongside it. "Squash club near me" and "squash lessons [town]" are low-volume, high-intent terms. Google Ads on that kind of search is inexpensive and converts far better than broad awareness spend.
Queen's Club is spending real money because it has worked out that squash sells better when people can see it. That insight is free, and it scales down to a four-court club just as well as it scales up to West Kensington.
If you run a squash or racket club and want to build a plan around it, book a demo with Ace Rally Media. We'll show you how clubs are filling off-peak courts and converting spectators into members.