[26 Year Gap]

I don't disagree that there is little additional overhead for a third official. Assuming 10 home games and even a slightly reduced rate (We generally are paid $5 less for 3 person crews), a school would have about a $500 added expense for the season. Per gender. Here in FL, I rarely call games with 2 on the crew at the varsity level. Last year, the school district experimented with cutting back to 3 mandatory games with 3 on the crew per gender. Back to normal this year.

The crowds, if you can call them that, are very small at many gyms. Especially, at girls games. However, I notice sponsor banners or signs in every gym, so I suspect that funds are available, but it is how they are spent that is the big issue. I hope at the subject school, that most of those "assistants" (who I suspect are assisting because their kid is on the team and they push for PT at every opportunity) are UNPAID. And even at that, most of them are OVERPAID.