PSA Director Addresses Finance Questions, PST Ban
from DailySquashReport.com
January 6, 2011 - PSA Director Richard Bramall yesterday issued the following statement on the SquashSite forum:
I am a board member of the PSA and wanted to respond to what has recently been posted regarding this issue. I thought I would also comment on the dispute that exists with the Professional Squash Tour (PST)
The board and employees of the PSA do regularly review various forums and take on board the comments that are made. We don’t post our own comments simply because we take the view that it’s a fans forum and not the place for official comment. However where the comment stretches to whether a Pro body is going to exist or not and given the importance of the Olympic bid we felt we had to respond and I wanted to take the opportunity of introducing myself to you all and of course wishing you a Happy New Year.
Firstly finance.
The PSA World Tour was going well but pretty stagnant in terms of income for both the Association and the Tour generally. To increase the revenue we had to look to a greater TV audience so as to attract further interest and also Tour Sponsors. This is because our foot print at a venue is modest and unlikely to significantly increase no matter how much we grow the sport. We spoke to various TV companies regarding our previous output and whilst they were happy with what we were doing with the finance available they said that to be professional you needed to broadcast at a much higher level which of course meant greater investment.
We had two choices, to enter into joint venture agreements with companies and partly own the rights which was the way it was done in the past or own it and control it ourselves and employ companies on a supply of services basis with incentives. This is much more expensive in the early years but the benefit you have is that you fully own the rights. If our plan succeeds the Tour and the revenue will also increase and that means that the full revenue will come to the Association and not third parties. We entered into multi year deals with companies that provided a minimum guaranteed income. With this we could prepare a 5 year plan. We continue to fully own all the rights to the tour and the footage.
I would add in just over a year we have doubled the income of the PSA. We have however had a lot of front loaded expense. We created two websites and also had to purchase hardware.
We are looking to break even at year 3 which is extremely good and this plan is without a Tour Sponsor.
We had some funds to help with the front loaded expense and approached financial institutions for the balance. With the state of economy the rates offered were high. Ziad Al-Turki the Chairman provided the Association with a fantastic offer, instead of paying interest to one of these financial institutions he offered to help the Association with this front loaded expense with an interest free loan. It is not the case that the Association has borrowed £250k to date, not even a quarter of that.
Accounts can be misleading and provide a sterile view of a company and do not take into account cash flow or reserves that existed. The accounts show the level of assistance that could be obtained if called upon.
We are delighted with the progress we are making. We know more progress can be made but we are all working hard to achieve our goals. We know from the feedback with the last Olympic bid that greater exposure of Squash on TV will help a further bid. The work that the PSA is doing on this will help that bid and also Squash generally
Alex Gough and his team have worked incredibly hard over the past couple of years to get us to the position we are in. I know Alex will provide a much greater overview of the Tour when he provides an update to you all by way of a press release in a couple of week’s time.
I agree grass roots are very important and we are working with the WSF and WSA on this issue. We cannot for obvious reasons commit much in the way of funds at the moment given our expense on the above. The Directors are unpaid and we are a not for profit organisation so all income received will be put back into the Sport including any revenue received from increase TV exposure and Tour Sponsors. Grass roots are one of the priorities.
I hope the above helps a little. We have taken calculated risks to increase the visibility and professional level of the sport. If anybody is any doubt of the direction we are taking please come along to the World Series Finals this week or view it at Squashtv or live on Sky Sports this weekend.
PST:-
Now turning to our dispute with the PST. I spoke to Joe as recently as the US Open in October 2011. I wished him and his colleagues all the best with their venture. It is no secret that I and the board have significant difference of opinion with the direction of our organisations and how our events are organised but it doesn’t mean that a dialogue and professionalism shouldn’t be maintained.
I admire Joe’s attempts to promote his events but do feel as though they are sometimes a little misleading from the PSA’s perspective but understand why he may wish to do it in the way he does. But I really do not believe that posting a message re PSA going bankrupt is helping anybody. At no time prior to that had we any e-mails from anybody asking about finance re the accounts.
We must all show restraint with the Olympic bid under way at the present time. The Sport would benefit from being part of the Olympic movement and we feel we have a really good chance this time. I sit on the bid committee and cannot speak more highly about the WSF and Mike Lee and his team from Vero regarding this bid. Yes ask serious questions but be sensible re the extent that this goes to. By all means have a headline re PSA investment and is this good or bad and we will happily tell you why we think it’s good, but bankrupt??
Whilst some would find the comments on individuals in the articles amusing they are clearly defamatory.
To try and help a little re the dispute with the PST I would say the following. I would like to add more but again restraint and legal privilege means I can’t.
The problem we had with the Tour related to a couple of issue one of which was that the branding which was too close to the PSA. Confusion was beginning to be created. We were getting e-mails from people asking if the PST was part of the PSA or indeed was this the name of our tour. This was going to damage the work we were planning and continued to plan regarding Squash generally. We met with Joe before taking the decision we did. The other issue beyond branding was resolved quickly.
We said that if they changed thier branding the PSA members could play without a problem. Joe decided to stick with the Professional Squash Tour, which is of course his right to do so but on that basis we had to maintain the restrictions in the Tour Guide regarding PSA members playing rival tours. Namely that Joe could create whatever Tour he wanted to but he could not have the intellectual property and the PSA players to do so. We take no pleasure in this and I’m genuinely saddened by it. I have no doubt but for legal privilege extending to the correspondence that was exchanged between myself and Joe’s lawyers that you would see that the PSA took the lead in the dispute and tried everything to resolve it.
The door is always open and Joe is aware what little would have to be done to resolve it and allow the squash players the ability to earn what they could particularly those in North America.
You can now see the investment we have made. We are protecting it and I don’t think that is unreasonable.
It’s no good in my view having players of the calibre of Palmer or El-Hindi having to decide when to stop playing the PSA tour and start playing the PST. I have read that Wael has signed for the PST but he hasn’t’ played yet and is welcome at any PSA event until he does.
We have been in operation for many years and invested millions over those years. In 2010 I think the PST at that time had been operating for a little over a year.
Please don’t’ take this the wrong way but I don’t particularly want to get into a long debate on these issues. It’s a fans forum and history tells me some members would not agree with anything I said anyway. But if anybody wanted to email me on any point please feel free at richardbramall@hotmail.co.uk
Richard Bramall
PSA Director
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