Defining a Harried Assignor
 

Last Friday night, 6:30 PM, I'm deeply involved in important domestic work (OK lying on the couch waiting for the pizza delivery) and the cell rings.

Assignor (for Weekend Tournament): I need help now, can you get here?
Me: Sure, where do you need help?
Assignor: On the court next to me!

Pause

Me: Yes, but where are you?
Assignor: Oh, yeah. (I hear his whistle) He names the college where help is needed. (20 min from house)

Ate the pizza three games and five hours later. Then did 10 more games on Sat and Sun.

Riveting.

It's hard to beat a fresh, hot pizza on Friday night in the off-season.

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.

$$$ ...
 

I know of two AAU directors, two separate organizations, both here in Connecticut, who make a living, that is, it's their only full time job, running their organizations.

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.

One word...
 

Organize.

I'm part of an organization in NYC that works games all year long, including what you now see on ESPN as the Entertainers' League (it used to be the Rucker Pro League). The main issue is always fees. We get more but we also promise more (guys will show up on time, they'll be properly trained, etc.).

I know we get more in my area than the majority of places but we tell tournament organizers if they wan't to pay less for an offical that's their decision but that's also the quality they'll get.

When I lived in GA 12 years ago they paid $15 (!!!!!)/game for men's rec league. Some even paid $10 and guys took it...and it showed. At that time my NYC group was getting $50/game for men's ball.

As I may have mentioned in another thread, you (and any member who does any AAU ball) would be very interested to see how wide spread this phenomenom is and how much money we're talking about. If you have a chance, read "Play Their Hearts Out" by George Dohrmann. It's a decade long chronicle about AAU youth basketball...the coaches, organizers, players and other characters affiliated with the organization and shoe companies. A real eye opener.

It's really just an issue of basic supply and demand. As long as officials will work for what they pay, the payment will not change much. Only when the customer complains loudly enough about the officiating, and they are willing to pay more to play (you don't think the organizers will just give more out of their pocket, do you?), will anything change. Around here there is a pretty big mix of abilities working AAU games. I do it to stay in game shape and frankly I could use the extra pocket money. I am happy enough with the $24 I get per game. But I also bust my *** as I would in any game I'm getting paid for. I don't give less effort because I'm being paid less. I take a job - I'm going to do the job best I can. However, many of my partners put out little effort and that really bugs me, but such is life. As long as the assignors don't care, what can you do?

In my area, there is a basic rate of pay that most non high school games pay give or take $1. Every now and then I hear of or get approached to work for less money. I believe there could be a way to distinguish these leagues and tourneys that pay less money.

In my area, leagues and tourneys advertise saying ‘there will be 2 IAABO refs working all games’. I do not want to discuss the pros and cons of IAABO but the organizers ARE using this to promote their league or tourney. My proposal would be for the IAABO boards in my area to get together and agree that the IAABO rate for non high school games is XX and not allow any League or Tourney that pays less than XX dollars per game to promote using ‘there will be 2 IAABO refs working all games’. Obviously, anyone could still work the games but they would not be able to promote it with the ‘2 IAABO refs will be working’.

If the two refs they get are actually IAABO, how can you stop them from stating so? I doubt that you can restrict an organization from stating the credentials of the officials on the game....particularly when you don't even own the IAABO brand.

If the officials are IAABO officials, there's nothing the boards can do -- the advertising isn't false at all.

Had a guy ask me to help fill an 80 team tourney today. I sent an email. 90 miles away, paying 20 bucks a game. Good luck.

Summer varsity-level stuff around here gets $14/game for three-whistles. It's not much, and I probably won't do a lot of it after the next couple of years.

There's no way I'm driving 90 miles, though; not for summer pay. Occasionally, I get asked to go 40-50 miles; too much gas, too much time, not worth it.

I'd work 3-person for $20 simply for the work. $14? Wow.

3-man is always an enticement to me, but I won't go under $20/game. It's not just the money, it's the type of environment and competition that comes with venues that can't/don't want to pay officials decent compensation.

That is a ripoff. That is not even minimum wage....and may not even cover the true cost to get to/from the game.

We get $25 for 2-person, JV or V. Typical summer set of 1 JV + 1 V, normal timing rules, $50 and usually stay within about 10 miles (1-way).

For summer pay, even at $25/game, I would not go 90 miles round trip, and definitely not 90 miles each way unless the opportunity of the specific game made with compelling independent of the pay.

To go 90 miles round trip would cost about $10-15 in gas alone. If it is 90 miles each direction, it would, of course, be $20-30. That just doesn't make any financial sense unless you're going to work 4+ games (and I will not be working more than 3, ever....and typically limit myself to 2). Maybe if you carpooled with 2-3 others would it start making sense a little sooner.

And, If you count the real expense or driving, it would about $40-50 for 90mi. round trip. You'd have to work 2-3 games just to get out of the red....and even then, you'd only net about $10-20 (post travel expense and pre-tax) for 6-7 hours of time and effort (3 driving, 3-4 working, plus whatever you need to add to count for arriving before the game time). $2-3/hour is not exactly compelling.

Too many people gloss over the real expense of travel and only count the cost of the gas. Gas is less than half the expense of travel. You have to count the cost of the car itself along with typical maintenance and repairs. Those will add up to more than the gas over the life of a car....even at today's gas prices. You just don't have to pay all of it on the day of the game.

Unfortunately, that's the going rate for the good venues (school sanctioned summer leagues) around here. I'm essentially doing it for the work rather than the cash. I'm even doing some JV games (3 person) for $10, and those I'm doing strictly for the work (and face time), as the $20 or $30 really covers expenses (mileage and a beverage).

Several years ago, when I was on the other side of the state, I did one season of middle school ball because they paid $12.50 per game and I had to get off of work early to work them. Not worth it. Moved here, worked two seasons, had to take a year off (knee), and now I'm climbing back in. It's the price, it seems, around here.

It's not my world, I'm just living in it.

Funny you should ask
 

I was thinking about this very thing over the last few weeks. We've had a torrent of summer ball weekends and I never leave feeling the pay is that great. I need to work for the experience. But, I can see how the more experienced guys will walk.

Here is a question: How hard is it to pull all the area officials together and form a union of sorts to ask for higher game fees? I'm not a union person as a rule(another talk for another day), but in our area literally 3 assigners could bring the entire basketball officiating world to a standstill. 25 bucks is high for a summer league game. 35 for junior high, 40 frosh/jv, 55 varsity. Why not say that NO summer league games can ever be done for less than 30? Will this break the tournaments?

This is thinking without knowing how the relationship between assigner and schools work, how often fees are approached, how hard it is to keep guys from breaking the line, etc. I don't know those things, but it just hurts me to think of the "true cost" of officiating once gas, car expenses, time, etc. are factored into things.

Been fighting that battle here in regards to AAU. Sometimes you are working a regulation game with a 2-man crew for $23/game. I work when I choose and no more than 3 games. I do it strictly to prepare for camp or to just to get on the court. They built an AAU complex 4 years ago and didn't even have the decency to build locker rooms. Originally we were told that we could utilize the bathrooms (which the players still do) but we did put our collective foot down about that on the very first weekend it opened. We were given 2 adjacent rooms and some chairs. But if there is a camp in town those rooms get very crowded.

I'll join you tonight
 

I disagree. We live in an era when Best Buy's big screen TV spots before Super Bowl weekend refer to "the big game" because they'll get sued for saying "watch the Super Bowl on your new TV" even though the Super Bowl is what they'll watch.

The hucksters canot use IAABO or any the name of any other officials organization to promote their get-rich-quick scheme without the permission of the organization, and the national can delegate the authority to grant permission to local boards.

That said, a lot of these AAU operators use the phrase "patched officials."

Perhaps Dicky Lee is working the game.

It is a certification and training organization for officials, not a product like the Super Bowl. The only way you can keep someone from using it in the context of the qualifications of the officials working their event is to keep your officials themselves from using it for all events they participate in. And that would essentially make the existence of the organization irrelevant. The officials are either IAABO certified or not.

$30-$35 per game in the New England area and usually the drive is less than an hour. No complaints I guess after seeing the comps.

IAABO is trademarked, just like the Super Bowl is. Legally, the tournament organizer must get permission to use the trademark in its advertising. Just having IAABO officials isn't sufficient.

When IAABO certifies the official, they have implicitly given that official the right to use and claim that certification. What good would a certification be if the certified official were barred from advertising it.

Seems to me that if a tourney wanted to guarantee IAABO officials to the coaches when promoting their tournament, they could do so without any sort of prior arrangement. They can then either do it by calling certified officials individually or working through an established assigner.

I can tell you, around here, they would go through an assigner. Now, if we can just fix this lousy summer pay. I know that'll only happen when enough people are willing to refuse to work for this pay rate.

No idea about the law, but playing the hypothetical game...

Suppose a building was being built paying far below union wages. The builder is able to hire all union employees who are not working union jobs and they are not hired through the union hall. Do you think it would be okay to advertise that the building was built by union workers?

BBRook, take a look at my post on pg 1 of the thread. Organizing is the only way the fees can come up. I realize my area (NYC-Metro) is way above the norm but it got that way because organizations stood their ground. Basically, if you think you're worth $15/game that's what you're going to get. If you think you're worth $40/game, that's what you'll get...though it will be a hard fight to get there.

Sure, there are going to be rogue groups who'll work for anything but what we've found is, for the most part, they're not trained well and the product shows.

That's another huge consideration. If you don't care enough about your product to pay the officials a decent wage, where else are you cutting corners? Security, perhaps? It all factors into the equation, as well as the wear and tear on our bodies, vehicles, etc.

Apples and oranges. The union membership is not a certification of skill...it is a labor organization. IAABO boards, and others (AFAIK), don't operate as labor organizations.

Still, if it was actually built by union workers, there is not much the union can do to stop them from claiming it was...it is merely the statement of a simple fact. They may not be able to cite that it was done so by a specific union or use the union's logo, but that is different than references to the general fact that the workers were members of the union.

I'm in New England too, and after reading this thread, we definitely have no room to complain if people are legitimately doing 2-whistle AAU (or similar) games for $20 ... or less!

I've done AAU just about every weekend since March (in Mass. and Conn.) and most of the tourneys in Conn. (from Hartford north, anyway) are gobbled up by the same assignor. He pays $28 -- by check.

In Mass., there are several tournaments that are $35 cash up front before you ever throw the ball up (the rest are $30 -- never less), so we sometimes moan about the $28-by-check scenario.

Never knew how good we had it.

One local program pays $25 cash just to come to their gym and officiate scrimmages w/o a book, so you don't even have to report fouls.

I'm sorry to hear of the plight of brother officials from other areas of the country.