Defining a Harried Assignor

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

If assignor's got tournaments to pay better, there wouldn't be such a shortage of officials.
A few years ago I decided that I wasn't going to worry about their lack of refs anymore. I would do three games per day and that's it. If the event was short, then they should attract more officials instead of running those that they have into the ground.
If you examine the team entry fees, spectators fees, and tournament expenses, you will quickly see that the tournament organizers are making serious money. They can share more of it.

Preach on, brother.

I get a ton of emails from people desperate for officials for these games. Many of these games pay $20/hour (games are played on the hour around here -- usually 20 minute running clock halves and finish in about 50 minutes or so) and that simply doesn't get me all that excited to work a lot of games.

Then when I think about it some more, I usually don't work at all. I've done one weekend of basketball during the off-season -- a tourney assigned by a really nice guy and good official who I'm happy to help out. They pay $25, which to me is still lower than what I think it should be these days.

Then again, if people are willing to work for what they're paying, I guess the rates are set where they needed to be. Doesn't mean I have to work, though.