Last night when I walked into the gym, I was the first ref to get there. As i went to shake the president of the summer leagues hand, he asked me how much did i charge. What should i base my price on?

Generally the price is agreed upon in advance, and the same price is paid to everyone. And generally there's a budget for fees...X games times Y bucks per game. If I were the cynical type I might think your friend was trying to take advantage of your youth to pocket something...not that people do this mind you :rolleyes:

If you have any ref contacts who work this league give them a call and find out what the fee is. When you take a game know what the fee is going in, it's OK to negotiate before you take the game (somewhat) but do not negotiate when you get there.

Quick story: a while ago my son was assigned to work a rec game, $25 cash per game per official. He was told coach so-and-so would have the money. At the last minute the assignor called, seems his partner, another kid, cancelled and I was asked to fill in. Again, told me coach so-and-so would have the cash.

Lo & behold, coach so-and-so did not have the cash, he gave my son some story about "well no, that guy has the cash, or maybe that other guy has it..." When I came out of the dressing room he changed his tune and magically the cash appeared.

As I said, not that this stuff happens.

President of League: "How much do ya charge?"

You: "Scale"

POL: "What's scale?"

You: "What everbody else is getting."

[BTW...that's a great story Dan.]

Sad commentary on how people behave. Taking advantage of someone because o his age. Terrible.

This is something that has popped up a few times when i'm working cash games. Our associations fee is $22, but for some reasons the majority of the coaches have a twenty and a five and expect me to give change. I'm not one to carry coin around, so I rarely have change, so my principle is that of a bus driver, please pay exact fare. What do other guys do in that situation, do you carry change, or do you wait for someone with change to show up??

They pay the fee or more. I don't bring in change. If it's $22 and they have only a twenty and a five, that'll do.

Wow, around here, if it's a cash game, they're either paying me with a pre-filled envelope or from the concession stand. I've never been asked for change.

This is completely amazing to me. I thought this was some kind of abberration, but it sounds like "cash games" are fairly common. What types of games are these? Are these like structured scrimmages? I have never been involved in any leagues, no matter how loosely organized, that worked like this.

The only time I've been paid cash is at an AAU game, and that was paid by the site adminitrator; not the coaches. The envelope was "prefilled" by the time I got there, so after the games I just picked up my envelope from the site administrator.
I haven't done AAU in a couple years, so I'm not sure if they still do it that way around here.

Prefilled! I like the sound of that! :)

A lot of summer league stuff around here is cash. Plenty of refs don't claim it all on their Schedule C. The advantage of paying cash-to-whoever-shows-up, is that the assignor doesn't have to track anyone down later to get them paid. And if a ref can't make a game, whoever she gets to replace her gets paid without a lot of extra juggling.

I would have used "prestuffed," but it sounds so, well, underhanded. :)

Let me be the first to say that I claim each and every nickel I earn officiating - and at a nickel a game that's a lot of nickels (beat ya JR).

I wouldn't touch any envelope that has been "prefilled" by a coach...if you get what I'm saying.

;)

Cash games ARE the way to go for the summer leagues and seasonal adult/junior rec leagues. In Detroit, the cash rate varies from $20-25 per game depending on wether it is AAU, Parks & Rec, camps, etc. Yes, these games are structered just like a normal league play. However, during the HS seasons, payment is always in the form of check.