For the love of the game?

[Man In Blue]

I was talking to a youth league president the other night and he asked me this question- "Why do officials need to be paid? Our BOD are all volunteers, our coaches are volunteers, scores, timers, etc are all volunteers, but not officials. If you guys are truly here for the love of the game, why do you insist to be paid?"

I told him the usual, rules study, professionalism, uniform costs, not my charity I give at work, etc. He said all of those thing are given by the other volunteers. He challenged me that being president of the league, he spent as much or more time during the course of the year as I did.

It did make the brown pop go down better but I am back to my trying to understanding the bigger picture grasshopper.

I do work quite a few freebies every year, but artists should be paid to perform their craft.

[Mark Padgett]

I was President of the Board of a youth league for quite a few years and I am still on the Board (17 years total now). I never spent anywhere near the time doing that job as I did officiating. Besides, if we didn't pay the refs, we wouldn't get any. Many of ours are HS kids. Part of the reason we use them is to provide them with a decent paying part time job. That's part of our mission, too. Quite a few of our Board members are volunteer coaches, but only two of us ref.

BTW - I do volunteer ref for Special Olympics. There's a difference between a "regular" non-profit and a charity.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Man In Blue

I was talking to a youth league president the other night and he asked me this question- "Why do officials need to be paid? Our BOD are all volunteers, our coaches are volunteers, scores, timers, etc are all volunteers, but not officials. If you guys are truly here for the love of the game, why do you insist to be paid?"

I told him the usual, rules study, professionalism, uniform costs, not my charity I give at work, etc. He said all of those thing are given by the other volunteers. He challenged me that being president of the league, he spent as much or more time during the course of the year as I did.

It did make the brown pop go down better but I am back to my trying to understanding the bigger picture grasshopper.

Simple. Tell him to try bringing refs in for free and he'll see what he gets (volunteer parents).

He can't compare volunteers who specifically sign up to help an organization with officials; who are essentially outside venders.

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

Simple. Tell him to try bringing refs in for free and he'll see what he gets (volunteer parents).

He can't compare volunteers who specifically sign up to help an organization with officials; who are essentially outside venders.

Right, plus I have yet to see the "volunteers" break a sweat or injur themselves while performing their duties.

[slow whistle]

Simple supply and demand....there is not a sufficient supply of qualified people who will do this on a regular basis for free to meet the demand...like Snaq said let them try getting people to do it for free and see what they get - in fact I can think of a few cases in my area where they have tried this and quickly started paying people b/c it was maddening....

[Mark Padgett]

Does he also think the school custodians who are there during his games should work for free? Yeah - that'll go over big with the union.

[LDUB]

Originally Posted by Man In Blue

If you guys are truly here for the love of the game, why do you insist to be paid?"

Ask him why anyone who "loved the game" would waste their time being around crappy 4th grade games if they weren't being paid? There are a lot better of games to be around or to be watched on TV. Also find out where he ever got the idea that the officials are there for the "love of the game".

[slow whistle]

Originally Posted by LDUB

Ask him why anyone who "loved the game" would waste their time being around crappy 4th grade games if they weren't being paid? There are a lot better of games to be around or to be watched on TV. Also find out where he ever got the idea that the officials are there for the "love of the game".

Come on LDUB, to do a high school varsity game around here means I leave work at 5PM and get home usually around 10:30. For my 5.5 hr committment I am paid $55 which is $10/hr BEFORE I deduct mileage, uniform, association dues, camps, etc, etc....if someone told me that they would hire me to do pretty much anything else considered work for that arrangement I'd say no thanks....while the money is nice and I wouldn't do as many games as I do if they were all freebies, I think all of us do this at least in part for the love of the game...

[LDUB]

Originally Posted by slow whistle

Come on LDUB, to do a high school varsity game around here means I leave work at 5PM and get home usually around 10:30. For my 5.5 hr committment I am paid $55 which is $10/hr BEFORE I deduct mileage, uniform, association dues, camps, etc, etc....if someone told me that they would hire me to do pretty much anything else considered work for that arrangement I'd say no thanks....while the money is nice and I wouldn't do as many games as I do if they were all freebies, I think all of us do this at least in part for the love of the game...

So you worked from 9-5, then went and worked a side job and made $10/hr while exercising. Sounds better than working 9-5 then working at Wal Mart for 4 hours making $8/hr, then going to the gym, which has fees, for an hour. For someone who wants to make money and exercise sports officiating seems like a better option.

Originally Posted by slow whistle

I think all of us do this at least in part for the love of the game.

There are guys who officiated some sport and then started officiating volleyball. Some of those guys had more or less never known anything about volleyball. Do you think they decided to officiate volleyball because they loved the game?

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by LDUB

There are guys who officiated some sport and then started officiating volleyball. Some of those guys had more or less never known anything about volleyball. Do you think they decided to officiate volleyball because they loved the game?

It's funny how volleyball takes the punches for being the avenue to make "easy money".

[slow whistle]

Originally Posted by LDUB

So you worked from 9-5, then went and worked a side job and made $10/hr while exercising. Sounds better than working 9-5 then working at Wal Mart for 4 hours making $8/hr, then going to the gym, which has fees, for an hour. For someone who wants to make money and exercise sports officiating seems like a better option.



There are guys who officiated some sport and then started officiating volleyball. Some of those guys had more or less never known anything about volleyball. Do you think they decided to officiate volleyball because they loved the game?

Perhaps I should have been a little more clear...my point was that I would not take a side job for $10/hr (which is not what I make when you deduct everything, it is probably closer to $8) even if it allowed me to exercise! $8/hr with exercise is not worth the time spent away from my family, the grief we deal with, etc, etc, if I didn't love the game....

Your point about volleyball for instance is valid, but more than the particular sport, I think it is the level that makes the difference - for instance I know guys who work 3-4 lower level (5-8th grade) games in the time it takes me to work one hs varsity game and they can walk out the door with more than 2X the money (and nowhere near the grief) that I do for the same time committment...maybe they don't love the game I don't know...but if you do this at a relatively high level you must love the game, b/c the money on its own isn't worth it and you can make more doing other things..

[rsl]

I work a lot of free games. When I do, I usually have an untrained partner and low quality basketball. When I charge $55 for a game, I get a great partner and high quality players. If you love the game, which would you pick?

[Rich]

Originally Posted by slow whistle

Perhaps I should have been a little more clear...my point was that I would not take a side job for $10/hr (which is not what I make when you deduct everything, it is probably closer to $8) even if it allowed me to exercise! $8/hr with exercise is not worth the time spent away from my family, the grief we deal with, etc, etc, if I didn't love the game....

Your point about volleyball for instance is valid, but more than the particular sport, I think it is the level that makes the difference - for instance I know guys who work 3-4 lower level (5-8th grade) games in the time it takes me to work one hs varsity game and they can walk out the door with more than 2X the money (and nowhere near the grief) that I do for the same time committment...maybe they don't love the game I don't know...but if you do this at a relatively high level you must love the game, b/c the money on its own isn't worth it and you can make more doing other things..

Forgive me, but this is BS.

I do it because it's a challenge to me. I don't really give a crap about the game other than I enjoy officiating it. I don't do it "for the kids" and certain not for the coaches.

Why is it so wrong for us to do it FOR OURSELVES?

[Raymond]

Because I have children of my own. They get my time for free.