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I don't work the summer AAU circuit around here for one simple reason--the organization refuses to pay the officials enough. During the regular season, the two-man fee is $60 and 3-man is $50 for varsity games (plus a travel fee), yet during AAU tournaments the organizers want the officials to accept $30 & no travel fee for a two-man game which is stop-clock and the same amount of playing time as a HS contest (either four 8-minute quarters or two 16-minute halves). Why? Because they wish to put the rest of the money in their pockets!
My answer is to not work those events until they become willing to pay what has been established by the high school administrators and the association leadership to be a fair fee.
Sadly, I frequently see people trying to work six or seven games per day at these tournaments. They are stupid and don't realize that if they refused, the tourney would have to raise the rates in order to attract more officials and they could make the same amount while working far fewer games!
Note: my comments apply to AAU games involving players of HS age. I don't care what they pay for little kid games because I'm not interested in officiating those. To me that's not basketball, it's babysitting.
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