Just a couple questions...

[gshoe10]

I just found this forum and have a couple questions. We are not an NCAA institution, but a municipality considering hosting a college softball tournament. I don't know the level of umpires on here, but if anyone is familiar with NCAA D1 their input would be especially appreciated.

When working a tournament, what is the maximum number of games to expect an umpire to work per day?

If three games is reasonable, what would be a typical daily fee per umpire?

Thank you!

[Blu_IN]

Are you planning to find your own umpires? You could always contact the assigner for the conference(s) of teams you plan to invite. He could give you a better idea of what the rates should be and how to go about getting umpires to work at this event.

Otherwise, you could probably get umpires out there for 50-75$/game plus mileage if you know how to find them and their phone numbers. Three games is enough for one day in my book Are you going to run three man or two man?

[gshoe10]

Thank you very much for your help. We are only in the exploratory stages of seeing if this is feasible now and umpires are by far the greatest cost, so getting an estimate of that cost would help us determine the likelihood of the tournament occuring. I have only watched Big XII games and don't recall for certain, but I believe they used three man crews. Using two umpires would certainly help costwise, but I honestly don't know if that's acceptable at the highest level . I obviously still need to do some research, but we are looking at 2008, so we still have some time.Any additional thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.

I play lots of slowpitch myself and I know that the local ASA commissioner is also very involved with women's fastpitch so I'll probably get in touch with him for some more info soon. I really wanted to educate myself as much as possible before I met with someone in person. Thanks again!

[AtlUmpSteve]

You will also need to provide housing for the umpires. Standard two to a room, plus a single for the UIC. Generally, this can be negotiated with the largest hotel where you house the teams.

Hospitality is also a factor; you can often get lower games rates if you provide meals for the umpire crew. Liquids during games is a minimum expectation; snacks and drinks between games is also a relative expectation.

If you are trying to build a reputation as a top tournament, 3 umpires per game is a good investment.