Quote:
Originally Posted by Multiple Sports
At the college level, it is about the green. Years ago the CIAA had a contract with Reebok ( I think ) and the story is that an official had on a pair of Nike's with a big white swoosh. Jim Burch came into the lockeroom at half time and had the official darken the swoosh.....
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So Reebok gave $ to the schools in the conference, but unless the officials were also being sponsored or signed something stating which shoes they would or wouldn't wear, then they are under no direct obligation. One could make the argument for indirect obligation as the conference is paying the officials. However, any argument based upon "better do what the assignor says or you may well lose games or even be dropped from the conference" amounts to nothing more than coercion.
Several years ago I was at a regional youth soccer event. One of the sponsors for the tournament was either Nike, Adidas, or Reebok,--I can't recall which--and after we arrived at the site there was a referee meeting at which the administrator stated that all of us were to wear only that brand of shoes!
There were no fees for the games. The individual states had paid to transport the officials, cover the hotel, and some food money.
I asked my state rep if the tournament would be providing shoes for those of us who normally wore another brand or funds for us to go purchase the desired shoes. When the answer came back in the negative, I let the rep know that I wouldn't be wearing the desired shoes as that info was not part of the tournament's preparation packet and it was unacceptable to be informed of such on-site. The tournament could remove me from any assignments, if so desired.
About six other refs from my state agreed.
I guess several other people must have been in the same position and the tournament couldn't replace us all because the next morning we were all told to work the games in whatever shoes we had.
Clearly the referees were an afterthought to the event and the sponsorship deal.