Game Fee High School Level
 

I'm interested in getting feed back from High School Level Umpires from different States regarding the amount of game fee they receive. In Texas we finally received a long over due increase and were told we now were the highest paid in the USA. I don't necessary agree, so I'm asking for your feed back.
Strikes get you outs, outs get you home early.
Thanks In Advance.

You need to account for travel fees (if any) and assigner fees (if taken from the umpire's check) to make a valid comparison.

In the Chicago area, I think it's $60, no travel, no assigner's fee (the school pays the assigner directly).

I think highest in the country may be tough there are some in NY making $100+ a game. In the region maybe in New Mexico we get $51 a game and have not had a raise in about 5 years

I know when I worked in Long Island we were getting $98/game. That was at least 15 years ago.

In Massachusetts, HS varsity fee is $78. There is no compensation for travel, nor are there assigner fees.

We are typically paid from $60 to $65. The occasional school still pays $50 to $55, but those are becoming rare and I usually don't work those (not because of the money disparity). Rural schools and conferences pay mileage, but I don't work those schools for baseball.

When I work basketball at those schools, I've walked away with as much as $125, including mileage. Conference mileage policies lead to interesting situations where I've driven past schools where I'd receive $100 to work to work a school that only pays $60 cause they don't pay mileage.

It's now $121 for V, $102 for JV and $84.50 for JH. No assigning fees, no compensation for travel (although we rarely have to travel more than 20 miles to a game).

Wow, thats unbelieveable but, I also understand that it probably equal to round trip gas and tolls into the city.

South of Albany, New York is $100+ per game for varsity, topping out at around $120 for a regular season game. There is no travel fee for the most part, unless an umpire goes into another territory to work.

Gas is about $3.85/gal. No tolls.

Out here on the left coast in the bay area, we get

Var $60
JV $52
F $50

All two man games.

Grossly underpaid for HS ball in my opinion. No travel cost.

JUCO ball pays pretty good. I get $135 a game for that. Requires a minimum 11AM commitment to make a 2PM game 7 inning game.

Youth ball isn't any better. Their paying $45 to $50 for Pony.

Mid Atlantic Corridor
 

We get roughly $65 - $70 per game......

Where I live every sport gets paid basically the same amount.....give or take a dollar.....

Why would you have to be there at 11 for a 2 PM game?

OOH! I know! I know! You check in at 11 with the head coach, then spend two hours driving around looking for a place to park while you finish your latte. :D

JJ

$65 for V, $55 for JV, no mileage, assigner fee approx. 1 game fee.

Some of the schools will offer you water during the game. :-)

Here in Texas we just moved from $45.00 to $60.00 for varsity and to $50.00 for JV. We do get a small (very small) mileage fee also. From what I see were about even for most of the country and a little behind from the E. Coast. Thanks to all who have posted and I'm looking forward to hearing from the rest of the country.
Gary
San Antonio, TX

Louisiana is a sliding scale from $50 - $65 with travel fee for Var. depending upon your experience and test score. There are some other requirements however, that is about the crux of it.

In SC it varies by the district you officiate. I love posting this because you guys have a field day with it - last season paid $68 for working the dish, and $63 for working the bases. Varsity, JV, and middle school ball all paid the same, and always a two-man crew. Rates go up for playoff games.

Do you get mileage too or is that included in the game fee? For playoffs, do you get a prorated amount based on the gate?

Mileage is included in the fee. It is paid directly to the officials - most schools used to pay at the game, but now all but one or two in our district mail the checks. There is no gate cut for playoffs.

Don't believe what the UIL tells you. Taking less for working a JV/Freshman game is what the big dogs tell you is good (for them). They'll be soaking up all the Varsity tournament ball they can scrounge now. In my old association, I got tired of getting hosed on mileage also. Such is life sweeping up after the elephants at the circus.

Varsity officials should be paid more. I don't see what the problem is, really.

Those that don't like making $40 - $45 (our FR/JV fee here) and would rather make $60 to $65 (our varsity fee) should work on getting better and become varsity umpires.

Central Ohio seems to be on par with others. $52 for varsity, $40 for JV or Fr, $35 for middle school. No mileage (though no great issue, there's a lot of schools in a small area) and no assignor fees directly paid by officials. The vast majority of games are 2 man, even middle school. The only school 1 man is generally city league JV (not all but a lot of them) and city league middle school. And in those cases you usually get 1.5 the normal fee.

Mid Hudson Valley NY here, and am a softball ump - but we are all VERY aware of the baseball fees, as we will be getting parity with them in a year or two.

New York has three levels: Varsity, JV, and what they call 'modified' - i.e., middle school. Here are both sports current fees Baseball is 100/75/65, and Softball is 98/74/65 By 2014-2015, both will be 102/77/67 :eek: For this coming spring's games, JV got a $2 bump this year, will another $1 next year, then another $2 for 2014-2015

This is all with no assignors fee - the schedule is made by, and we get paid through a local educational co-op here called BOCES . That office administers all sports in our area, and they are VERY fair about making sure you get paid right. The only pain is that we have to fill a monthly voucher out, and have to wait for them to process it. And - of course - receive a 1099 in January!

personally, I work about 25 JV softball and about 4 or 5 modified softball games a season, so I do pretty well...

IIRC, you aren't beholden to assigners and get your own games. There are plenty of officials who are quite capable of working a varsity schedule but aren't allowed to by the control freaks who are intent on protecting their turf for themselves and their buddies.

Softball doesn't deserve parity with baseball. This isn't like basketball or soccer where the boys and girls play the same game, sexually segregated. Baseball and softball are different sports.

Softball is almost always far easier to officiate, and typically takes a lot less time. Around here, you can put twenty baseball umpires and twenty softball umpires in a line-up and be able to tell, with 80%-90% accuracy, who works which sport based solely on physical appearance.

And why do so many officials so object to receiving a 1099? (That's a rhetorical question.) It's ironic that so many members working in a profession in which integrity is integral to performance are dedicated off the court and field to cheating on their taxes.

They aren't THAT different - both require the same skills set, the same kinds of judgement needed. The only difference are different rules and mechanics. I assist in our new candidates clinic, and the main problem we have with experienced baseball umpires is them having to learn SOFTBALL rules and mechanics - they already have the judgement skills someone totally knew lacks.

Softball is almost always far easier to officiate, and typically takes a lot less time. Around here, you can put twenty baseball umpires and twenty softball umpires in a line-up and be able to tell, with 80%-90% accuracy, who works which sport based solely on physical appearance.

Thats total BS - typical baseball arrogance. Softball is a FASTER game operationally. And our mechanics require a hell of a lot more hustle from the umpire. Our BUs don't have the luxury of standing in the middle of the infield with runners on, so we have to HUSTLE to call infield plays. So yeah, you can tell the difference between baseball only umps and softball only umps.

One more thing, and this is the point we have been trying to make for YEARS - our EXPENSES are exactly the same - Gerry Davis does NOT give a 'softball discount' on our gear. Nor is there a softball discount on gas.

And why do so many officials so object to receiving a 1099? (That's a rhetorical question.) It's ironic that so many members working in a profession in which integrity is integral to performance are dedicated off the court and field to cheating on their taxes I totally agree with you there....

Softball games are 1/2 as long as baseball games.

Lower level baseball games require the same equipment as major league umpires.

The diamond on a softball field is way smaller than a baseball field.

There are lots of differences, mainly the time portion. I guess I don't see how softball should have the same fee as baseball.

More than half of our schedules are tournament games. At least mine are. We work a heavy load of tournament ball when all the "other more qualified" are off working some college ball. They like to come back, and work district games, and then do the playoffs. I'm sure they will stay closer to home now.

When the people that negotiate these game fees start working for all umpires, then I'll jump on board the gravy train with them.

Last time I checked, my dues are the same as theirs, and it's not any cheaper to officiate either.

It won't be long before there are a plethora of Fresh/JV games to be worked because I damn sure ain't going to be working on the cheap, and others won't either before long. Life in the fast lane can be expensive.

You could take the best high school softball-only umpires in this area (And a lot of other areas I suspect) and put them on the biggest high school baseball game of the spring, and they would be in over their heads.

devils advocate: softball umps deserve parity simply for putting up with that incessant, constant chanting...

Those games always seem to be covered here.

It amazes me that people *really* think JV games should pay the same as varsity games. I've never seen the JV boxscores or standings in the paper and I've never seen a JV state tournament. There's more pressure and more expected at the varsity level and those umpires should receive more money for working those games.

Enough bickering
 

The purpose of my original post was to get feedback from different parts of the country as to how much they are paid for game fees. I wanted to compare this with what we receive here in Texas. It appears we lost sight on this subject and how are starting to argue as which sport (baseball or softball) is harder to officiate. Lets face it guys, both have there up & downs, I really believe is comes down to individual preference.
I still would like more feedback on what you receive for both sports in your neck of the woods.
Thanks Again In Advance.
Gary Evins
San Antonio, TX.

Funny thing about threads like these -- you can start them, but you can't control where they end up going.

FWIW~I would rather work a Fresh/JV game that has kids that actually can play than a varsity game that doesn't, so I fail to see your logic.

I've only worked the first half of the past few seasons because that is when I'm needed the most. I set my personal agenda aside, and don't go off to where the big money is to be made.

The Dallas ISD has some horrendous baseball. Veterans never work them, or are assigned to them from what I've seen. Shitty baseball is shitty baseball. When they start working shitty baseball because I'm unqualified to work varsity, I'll worry about what level I officiate at.

Yes, they have four teams out of each of these distracts that make the playoffs. They play a schedule worst than suburban JV's play. Often times ten players is a large squad.

Football and basketball are the sports around here. Basketball especially now since the inner city kids play it better than most suburb schools.

If games are timed like football and baseball, a sliding scale is acceptable. Also, the association needs to make sure that "all officials" are working their level of expertise.

I don't know all the details, but in my opinion, Mark Cousins dangled a carrot in front of all the TASO big dogs, and they couldn't get enough. He may have put a wedge in associations that can't be fixed.

agree.

I have heard that argument before too.

If there is a JV age player who is good enough, he is on the Varsity, and playing. No coach wants talent to sit the pine in Varsity game when they could play every day on JV team and help the Varsity team in a future year.

Varsity talent is better, games don't last as long, pitchers can pitch, catchers can catch, fielders can field. So in some ways JV is harder to do.

But as Rich said, more is expected of varsity umpires and they should be paid more for the knowledge they learned while learning the ropes working JV ball.

Tournament games pay a whopping $5 more than regular season here, still no mileage.

I can't recall if they have done it since, but around August of 2008, Referee Magazine had an entire chart with fees per state. Maybe someone has that around. I'm not looking to take a trip into the attic until I need to get my Christmas lights out.

That is maybe too general of a statement. If you're talking about JV/Varsity for the same school, of course the varsity will have the most talent.

Around here (and, I'm sure, other places) it really depends on the league. There is a great disparity between the urban and suburban schools. Our city league has notoriously bad baseball. There are a lot of kids playing varsity that look like they have never played baseball before in their lives.

The surrounding suburbs get kids involved in the sport at a young age and funnel them up through feeder programs. For many of these schools, their middle school teams could handle the city school's varsity, and their JV teams would clean their clock.

You are correct, very general statement. Big schools around here and most are pretty good at Varsity level. JV ball not bad in comparison but clearly not the same level as Varsity.