Tight Set Up: Squeezing the PSA's Tournament of Champions Into Grand Central Station for the Annual Squash Extravaganza

Tight set up: Squeezing the PSA's Tournament of Champions into Grand Central Station for the annual squash extravaganza By Heather McLean

Thursday, January 22, 2026 - 16:59

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The PSA's annual Tournament of Champions has returned to the spectacular Grand Central Station in New York City

The first platinum Professional Squash Association (PSA) event of the 2026 calendar year is getting underway, with the Tournament of Champions returning to the spectacular Grand Central Station in New York City. The event will take place between 22 to 29 January in New York's iconic train station, where time and space are tight for the production.

All action will be streamed live on SquashTV, with the semi-finals and finals available to watch with the PSA's broadcast partners.

On how the station works for this annual broadcast from the PSA, chief operating officer Lee Beachill laughs and says: Oh, it's definitely not set up for broadcast! I mean, we've been there now a good number of years, probably more than 20 years. [The Tournament of Champions] actually historically used to be down by the Twin Towers in the very early days, and then in the early days of Grand Central Station being refurbished and brought back to life, this particular space that we're in was available as an event space.

We've done television from there for the last 15 or 16 years, but it's very unique. It's very tight. But as a sport, we try to differentiate ourselves from a lot of other sports by being able to play in weird and wonderful places, and this is certainly one of them. The general exposure that it gives the sport is phenomenal.

All content from the Tournament of Champions will go out live on the PSA's streaming service, Squash.TV, while the latter stages of the competition will be pushed out to broadcast partners

Tight on spectators

The tournament is located within the station. If you enter Grand Central Station off 42nd Street under the bridge where Pershing Square is, you literally walk through the doors, look to the right, and that's where the squash cart is, notes Beachill. Look to the left and there is a couple of restaurants and the bistro place and you just literally walk down to the concourse, so it is literally right at one of the main entrances to the station.

Passers by on their way to hop on a train can stand at a viewing window to watch the action. Says Beachill: It's a very well attended ticketed event, but there are also the tens of thousands of people that pass through that entrance every day. We're there for nine days this year, and just the pure amount of people that stop and watch is phenomenal. And we've had issues with the station masters having to move people on because there's too many people blocking the entrance. These are all things that are really, really cool for our sport.

The production team sends an ENG crew out to meet the spectators by the window for interviews, which are then used within in-game short intervals of 90 seconds to two minutes, as well as in the pre and post match presentations. It's a tight show and we use all the available time that we've got either before, during or after to get in anything that's interesting, adds Beachill.

Click on the image to view a larger version of the camera plan

Tight on space

On the logistics of setting up the Tournament of Champions broadcast production, Beachill says: It's brutal. The space is so tight! That is the biggest issue; it is so tight. The seating stands literally go to the very, very edge of the hall.

There is no room for an OB van at Grand Central Station so the entire production has to squeeze itself into every available space, he notes. Obviously the court is the main visual within the hall, Beachill continues. We can't go up too high because of the chandeliers, which again, are an amazing visual within that particular space, but they're also a bit of a restriction as well. So in the back left corner, there's a three-tiered deck that's been built to house media on the bottom, house AV on the middle, and we generally take up the top deck for our broadcast.

This year, luckily, we're managing to use one of the shops that is adjacent to the hall, which is currently untenanted. So we've actually got the opportunity which is a real luxury this year of moving the gallery into one of the shops that's not been used.

That then gives us the upper deck to use just from a pres and an in-vision perspective, adds Beachill. So this year will be the most space that we've ever had from a gallery perspective. But again, just cable runs, cameras, moving around the venue; it is just so tight.

Tight on time

Set up time at Grand Central Station is two days, which may sound like a standard amount of time, but Beachill says it is another area that can get a bit tight in new York: If everything goes swimmingly and we've been to the venue before so we know all the ups and the downs it's probably just about enough time. If something can't work though, or we need to source something else, or a cable's broken or something like that, it's a nightmare.

It's one of those where there's no real redundancy in there, but again, it's just something that we've had to manage for a long, long time and I guess we've got used to the pressure that comes with having to get something up and running by a certain deadline.

The entire production for the Tournament of Champions is not only run but staffed and supplied by the PSA itself, Beachill explains: We do everything from start to finish ourselves. So the kits, crew, everything. It's the same crew and it's the same kit that pretty much travels around the world and does all our major events. I guess in

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