Its time for us all to demand better treatment and pay. I think everyone should pay at the site -- cash or check. If some states do it (or require it) that means any school district can do it. I think dressing rooms with showers and drinks should be a minimum requirement for all games. Its easier for me to go ahead and dress at home for subvarsity football games since we show up and work -- no real pregame, but some guys come directly from work.

I'm sick and tired of officials being an afterthought, and that's coming from someone who admits he is treated fairly well (in football) compared to others.

What of those of us who prefer getting monthly or even annual checks, lump sum? I don't want to be paid at the game. I like the relationship I have with the AD's an coaches as it is. I don't want them handing me money before during of after the game. I get paid for about 20-25 games at a time and prefer it that way.

I'm speaking about those of us getting paid per game from the district/school/etc/, not those of you getting a lump some X number of times per year from a single source. If you guys are happy with that system, that's great.

I personally wouldn't accept it, but that's just me.

We get paid at the end of the season in mid December and make it into a fun evening called "Pay night". Yeah, I know, real creative....

FOA pays for beer and pizza (Yes, we do put Canadian Bacon on them as a matter of fact) and we hand out fun awards and our guys go home with nice big cheques a couple of weeks before Christmas. We allow the younger guys to take the money monthly if they request, but they seem to be happy with the one big chunk of dough at the end (our wind up is in mid January after the xmas rush).

As for F&B during the games, some of the minor organizations (Bantam and under) allow us free consessions, but that's about it.

Most schools are attentive to us on Friday nights. Someone meets us, gets us into a decent sized area for changing. I can think of only one school we've been to where the room and we've told them we need a little more space if possible. They said they'd try. If you don't ask, you don't get anywhere.

Some schools offer prime, secure parking, an escort (not that kind) on and off the field, snacks, cookies, drinks, etc. Obviously some are much more generous than others; the generous ones have no trouble filling their schedules, I am sure. Most pay the night of the game but a couple of the big schools voucher the game and you see the check about three weeks later. I don't care for that but I know they have the rules.

Ditto to whoever said something about the time spent with some good guys, to and from the game, and all the interesting things that happen in between. No better place at a football game than being on the field where the action is.

One school somewhere in NE, I cant remember where we were actually expected to use the same lockerroom/showerroom as the cheerleaders. Interpret that however you want.

Yowza! That's a lawsuit waiting to happen.... or a penthouse forum letter.

We have an interesting system in my midwestern state. We are licensed by the State but are independant contractors with the schools. Our license, however, prohibits us from organizing or negotiating as a group. Thus, we are completely at the mercy of the schools themselves. Since the schools see us as a necessary evil, they have no interest in paying a fair amount. We are paid on average 55 per varsity game with no travel expenses paid.

I believe this to be a clear anti-trust violation by the state that no one has challenged.

Who's the license with? What's the authority of the "license" that prohibits organizing or negotiating as a group?

I am generally not a labor union type guy (totally understand the reasons for workers to be safe and have a certain quality of work environment, but we all have to admit there are some unintended consequences that unscrupulous people can use to make things unfair). But I wonder what would happen if a state's officials just all decided that they were going to band together and if you didn't like it, you could have Joe Blow officiate your games for a year and see how you liked it.

Of course, there would be those who would cross the line - there will always be some people who won't go along with a union's activities for whatever reason.

I'm not advocating a Norma Rae situation here, I'm just thinking out loud - if coaches and administrators want quality officials, the quality officials in some areas may have to take a short-term hit for a long-term gain. I don't know if $55 or $60 a game or the couple grand you might make in a season is enough to bother about, but it's an interesting concept.

And I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know that I would throw terms like "clear anti-trust violation" out there if I'm not sure about it. Do they, in some respects, have an advantageous market position? Absolutely. Are we going to unionize to make sure we have a towel and a Gatorade? I'm not sure.

I think one's state association needs to recognize the work we do and mandate that its member schools adhere to certain minimum standards. It seems to me that MOST of those standards could be easily adhered to at little actual cost to the schools.

Pay is a whole 'nother can of worms. That's always going to be the sticking point. We feel our services are worth more, obviously. They feel they can get five guys to do this for what they're paying (and they're probably right).

Here in Twin Cities metro area we get $79 per varsity game. If we go outstate we negotiate our own rates and that may or may not include mileage. As for perks, we normally get water and/or gatorade at halftime. Some schools, especially the rural ones, treat us to hot dogs or popcorn at halftime as well. As for a changing room, we normally show up dressed for a game in the metro area but have a locker room when we do an outstate game. In a JV game you get paid $58 and you normally get no perks at all.

Houston ISD is pretty bad, they have the same rep amongst all officials in every sports. You get paid from them anywhere from 2 weeks to never getting paid.
There the worse, I did a baseball game in March and did not get a check in the mail until the end of july. Good thing Im an engineer and make decent money but there are guys in our association who main source of income is officiating.

That seems like a lot. Is that one of the higher rates in the country? Do you have a lack of officials in MN?

$58 for a jayvee game might be the only perk I'd need.

All a matter of perspective, I guess. We get $42 ($35 + $7 mileage flat rate) for a sub-varsity game.

That's doing better than here. $70 for a varsity game, $55 for JV and no travel.

Dear Penthouse Forum,
I'd never thought this would ever happen to me, but one Friday night before a football game....


Seriously...it looks like we have it pretty good here in northwest iowa. Varsity games range from $80-$95, we get treated quite well by the AD's, and the checks are generally on top of the cooler (filled with water, candy bars, gaterade, etc.). Lower level games can range from $60 for jr. high games to $85 for frosh./soph. double headers.
I believe we get treated so well because we live in a rural area and have a long history with the school's we officiate. Many times we will officiate for coaches we went to college with, played against, and even been coached by.
cheers,
tro

There doesn't seem to be a lack of officials, but to keep it in perspective, I was a varsity fill-in the first year I started working football and a varsity white hat with a full schedule by my 3rd year. The reason I think we get paid so well is that our various officiating associations work together to set a rate for the Twin Cities metro schools. A little cooperation seems to go a long way in this regard.

As I'm sure most of you would agree, this is an avocation rather than a vocation. You can't be in this to have it be all about the money. The money is nice, and it pays for the uniforms and beer, but there is more to it than the money.