sports official source

[fullor30]

Anybody ever heard of these guys? Out of Farmington MI. They assign various sports on lower levels around the country, I'm sure they're small potatoes, are they legit?

[Mark Padgett]

I never heard of them until your post. I went to their website and found out that you can be a "free" member to get games or a "platinum" member and pay a fee to get games. It also states that "platinum" members get priority over "free" members. I couldn't find anywhere on their site as to the areas they cover.

[BillyMac]

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I wonder what happens when they assign you a kid's game, or a men's recreation game, and then you get a last minute phone call from your high school assigner for a high school varsity game at the same time?

[BayStateRef]

I am not surprised to see this. There is a lot of money being made in youth sports and some entrepreneur is trying to get his slice of that cash. I don't see it as working in the long run because of the disconnect between the needs of programs (in any sport) and the ability of this company to have competent officials in that geographic area.

As an official, I would be concerned about actually getting paid for the games I worked. If I were a coach or tournament director, I would be concerned that this virtual company could actually find officials for my games. But the technology certainly has the potential for this to work. I presume that is what the company is counting on.

[JRutledge]

I might have misunderstood the concept, but it appears that if you sign up as an official you could get games to go anywhere. So you could be asked to work games in a vast area and this appears to be geared more towards youth sports and not HS sports. I just do not see it working well because will these leagues have enough available officials to cover a local league. I know many people are not going to travel all over the place to work a youth league because of the pay and the other problems to get to these games outside of your area.

Peace

[BayStateRef]

I looked at the enrollment form. You can limit how far you will travel, with the shortest distance being 10 miles.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by BayStateRef

I looked at the enrollment form. You can limit how far you will travel, with the shortest distance being 10 miles.

That is not the problem as I see this situation will face. Will this company be able to have enough officials in an area to rely on this service? And it appears that you have to pay to join as an official as well. I doubt in my area for example that someone is going to pay to join this site and then hope a league in the area picks them up. They would get enough of those opportunities being a member of a local association I also doubt that the leagues would pay to get someone to cover their games with a smaller pool of officials than they would go to a local assignor or an official that would have a few hundred officials at his disposal through email. And this site will not be able to decipher as much who is good and who has experience to cover the games. I guess if you just want the game covered that would be OK, but that is not how many games are given out. Schools, leagues and assignors are concerned with quality as much as who can work the games.

Peace

[tref]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Schools, leagues and assignors are concerned with quality as much as who can work the games.

That all depends...

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by tref

That all depends...

All true. But I cannot imagine a league bypassing the people they already work with and getting people that they do not know who is on their staff or likely to work games. I just do not see that happening at least around here.

Peace

[tref]

Same holds true around here, these guys got it on lock! They may take from each other, but no outside source is cashing in here.