Racquetball: November/December '02 Feature

November - December 2002
Vol. 13, No. 6 | Contents

Racquet Wars!
by Tom Slear

E-Force
Ektelon
Harrow Sports
Head/Penn
Pro Kennex
Wilson

Special! October 2002 RacquetTech reprint of technical specs (by permission, U.S. Racquet Stringers Association). Note: This .PDF file requires Acrobat reader.

Listening to representatives of the equipment manufacturers talk about the health of racquetball reminds one of the old story about two people who view opposite ends of an elephant. Both look at the same animal but see something entirely different.

“I’m very optimistic about the state of racquetball,” says Mike Ceresia, director of racquetball for Harrow. “The opportunity for growth is there.”

“I have no reason to expect racquetball to grow,” says Scott Winters, the senior director of indoor court sports for Ektelon. “On the other hand, I see no reason for racquetball to decline.”

“I’m quite optimistic,” say Doug Ganim, racquetball promotions manager for Head. “I think the sport has shown resiliency all on its own.”

“I’m not that optimistic,” says Terri Graham, the business director of indoor racket sports for Wilson. “I don’t see racquetball ever getting back to what it was in the ‘70s. It was a fad then. Fads come and go and they don’t come back.”

“I don’t think racquetball has seen its best days yet,” says Ron Grimes, president of E-Force. “I believe the number of participants will be upwards of 15 million (four million more than the heydays of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s) within the next 20 years.”

The latest data on racquetball tell a good news/bad news story. According to a survey conducted by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, 5.3 million people in the United States tried racquetball at least once during 2001. Of those, 1.37 million were frequent participants, which is to say they played 25 times or more during the year. Both numbers are up slightly from 2000 (5.15 and 1.09 million).

The bad news had been the precipitous decline in the decade prior to 2001. SGMA started its annual survey in 1987, which, it could be argued, is an unfair point to start judging racquetball participation because at the time the sport was at the zenith of hyper-charged growth of the 1970s and early 1980s. Zero growth or even a decline was inevitable. SGMA assessed there were 10.4 million participants that year and 2.2 million frequent players. The drop-off was steep through the mid-1990s and then, mercifully, slowed to a trickle. Last year was the first time either number increased.

The manufacturers, for the most part, see promise in the stable numbers of the last few years. Depending upon the perspective, racquetball has either bottomed out or found its core group on which to build a comeback. But taking solace in numbers that have stopped declining is akin to feeling relief when a boat hits the bottom of the bay. Granted, it has stopped sinking, yet it’s still under 10 feet of water. When pressed, the manufacturers admit as much.

“No question the sport needs something,” says Winters. “What’s been done in the past just isn’t working.”

“The sport has a great base and those people aren’t going anywhere,” says Mike Martinez, the national director of fall sports (racquetball, squash and badminton) for ProKennex, “but we need some growth.”

Five million players represents a sizeable slice of the active public and is probably enough to keep the five major manufacturers (Harrow is new to the field and has negligible market share) healthy, especially since all but E-Force are part of widely diversified parent companies. As Ganim says, “We don’t have to have huge numbers to justify our existence.”

Still, the stagnation irks and befuddles the manufacturers. The pro tour is in its best shape ever and the players are more accomplished than at any time in the racquetball’s history, yet television coverage remains as elusive as cold fusion. The game itself has lost none of its endearing traits—easy to learn; powerful, enjoyable workout; relatively inexpensive—yet the sport can’t seem to attract newcomers. (The average age of frequent players is 35.) What is going on?

Answers from the manufacturers are split. Some say the problem has been lack of television exposure, which is what passes for currency nowadays in American sports.

“We have to make racquetball fashionable again,” says Ganim, “and the only way to do that is to showcase the pros through television. We use them to grab people’s attention. Once we have their attention, we communicate the benefits of racquetball.”

Others say the problem rests with the club owners who naively expect members to gravitate toward racquetball courts without the benefit of lessons, programs, or a resident pro.

“When you ask club owners why they are taking out courts, they will tell you because nobody plays and they need the space for spinning or step aerobics,” says Graham. “When you ask them if they have instructors for step aerobics, they say yes; for spinning, yes. When you ask if they have an instructor for racquetball, they say no because nobody plays. They don’t see the connection.”

(Ganim vehemently disputes this contention. “Putting the blame on club owners for not hiring people to create demand is unfair,” he says. “They own a business. It’s not their job to create demand. They respond to it. We have to first make it so the phones at the club ring off the hook with people asking about racquetball.”)

Programming at the club level and television exposure are hardly new issues within racquetball circles. They have been discussed for years, which, according to Winters, is precisely the rub. There’s always been plenty of talk followed by very little effective action. Other than the annual U.S. OPEN at the Racquet Club of Memphis, there is no venue for viewing racquetball that accommodates more than a hundred or so spectators.

There’s still no major sponsor underpinning the sport. Television amounts to one hour, once a year. Consequently, there is no way for the general public to watch the sport and no money to bring them the racquetball message of fitness and fun. What’s more, people have more choices than every before. SGMA incorporates 103 sports in its survey including paint ball and artificial wall climbing. Who would have thought? Ten years ago there were half as many.

“Then there is the enormous competition from electronic entertainment,” says Mike May, SGMA’s director of communications. “People are saying no to sports activities and yes to a good, brick, sit.”

When talking about solutions, however, all of the manufacturers stand at the same end of the elephant. The answer is a four letter word: cash. It takes cash to get on to television. It takes cash to market racquetball to the fitness-minded public. And it takes cash to convince club owners of the value of in-house programs.

But racquetball has always been woefully short of money, though there are vague notions that that might change. The manufacturers have formed the Racquetball Manufacturers Council for the purpose of creating specific plans to grow the sport. More important, according to Ganim, there seems to be a commitment from each of the companies to front the money to turn the plans into action.

“I don’t think it’s ever been better for seeing eye-to-eye (among the manufacturers),” says Martinez. “We all know each other from our playing days. We work well together. We’ve come to agreement on a lot of issues. This could be the group that moves racquetball forward.”

Perhaps, but as Winters, the chairman of the manufacturers council, cautions, there have been many blue-sky projections over the last 15 years and most have been followed by thick cloud covers. Yet maybe, just maybe, things will be different this time around.

“I’ve been in this sport for 25 years,” he says. “I’ve seen it at its height and at its low-point. Making predictions is something I don’t do any more.”

But then it seems that he just can’t help himself, as Winters proceeds to do just that ...

“Even though the game is in limbo and needs a boost, it’s also healthy and stable,” he says. “Something tells me that racquetball is ready for a break.”