From the dark side
 

Since I can't ref this year due to health reasons, I'm coaching my 11 year old's rec team. I went to the coaches meeting tonight and the league director said something like this:

"I fought hard and managed to get certified refs for this year's games. But don't get your hopes up. They are still not very good."

I am glad they went to NHFS refs from the local association, but nothing like throwing your entire referee staff under the bus before the season even starts!

In The Beginning ...
 

Did he expect to get top notch, experienced officials, whose last game was a state high school final last season? If so, then I hope that he was prepared to pay them the same rate as high school varsity officials, which in my little corner of Connecticut, would be $88.84 per game. Officials don't come out of the womb as "ready-to-ref" officials. We all have to start somewhere.

Holy snakeys! That's some real scratch. :eek:

I don't make that here, but I hardly have a commute to any of my games either.

You guys in Connecticut and New York need to tell the rest of the country how to get rates like that.

We're still at $60 for most of our games.

I wouldn't hesitate to pass this information on to the assigner responsible for these games. That's absolutely ridiculous, and shouldn't go unreported, IMO.

I hope you told this to whoever is the coordinator for the officials. He (or she) should hold an officials meeting and tell them the same thing about the coaches.

WOW! We here in Southern Cali making $72 per game for varsity..time to move to Conn:)

I would have said something in meeting. My oldest son played in a little ragtag YMCA league. I would sit back and and just watch but then they were a few parents from our team who started riding the officials as the season went on. I spoke up.

Yep, I couldn't have sat silently through that either.

As for game fees, we only get $85 for a GV/BV doubleheader!

I loved those varsity DHers when I lived in Tennessee. Back then (in 1995), we only got $60 for both games. And back then, everything was done 2-person.

Still 2-person in everything but the largest two classes here in Oklahoma. We get a flat $100 or $110 (depending on the conference) per varsity DH here in this part of the state. No travel $$.

The Other 99% Are Peons ...
 

We're that 1% that the "Occupy" protesters have been complaining about. You guys are going to get pretty cold sleeping in those tents when winter hits.

$50 here in Phoenix + $7 travel for metro area, and that is 2 person varsity. Behind the times in both pay and mechanics.

I wanna say this year is $98 for certain three mans in NYC

These games are in Utah, and the "Junior Jazz" league pays $17 for fifty minute game. This is less than half the local JV rate for a two hour game ($40) and less than a third of the varsity rate for three man ($55).

I debated speaking up, but kept quiet for the sake of my 11 year old. It is really about him, and I didn't want to risk biasing anyone against his team.

You Get What You Pay For ...
 

I know that it's not always about the money, but by offering only $17.00 a game, you're really cutting down on your "pool" of quality officials. There aren't too many officials who would leave their homes, and families, and pay for gas, and laundry, for only $17.00. On the other hand, there are some officials who would referee a game anywhere, anytime, for any fee, as long as they walk out of the gym with a check in their back pocket. Some of these guys might be quality officials, but, for some reason, most usually aren't.

50 Minutes? Is that time on the running clock?

You are absolutely right. Utah ranks refs from 100 (the guys who do the state finals) to 800 (rookies). The guys who do this league and the comparable AAU league are usually 500-600 ranks. I have never seen a 100-200 at the $17 games.

No, that is just the average time it takes for these games. The games are 8 minute quarters, running clock except for the last two minutes of each half. This league can get certified JV refs because you can do two games ($34) in less time than one JV HS game ($40), and if you are in it for the cash you can get 4 games per night several nights a week. They are not bad games to get experience, and a lot of the new guys do most of these games.

So, in some sense the director is right- she is not getting the best refs because she doesn't pay well enough. But, to say so in a coaches meeting is really, really bad.

Based on the comments from you guys, I am going to send the director an email. I'll let you know what she has to say.

I would copy the assigner on that email. He/she needs to know exactly what sort of "support" the officials are getting sent into.