Note: This is Part 1 of this as I have more to say on this topic than anyone could possibly want to read in a single sitting.

The feedback I received since posting yesterday focused mostly on fan/parent behavior and the unwillingness to address this in a meaningful way, but I’ll come back to that in a future post.

I’m not saying this isn’t a problem. I asked 3 spectators to leave this basketball season in about 40 games, which is (1) the most I’ve ever removed in a season and, (2) 3 more than I would like to have to deal with. All 3 left immediately, thinking that they somehow “won” the encounter by, I don’t know, showing me how terrible I was. I also tossed one from a tournament I was the game manager for without referee intervention.

But I still don’t want to put that at #1. Paying officials what they’re worth and what makes them feel valued and respected in 2022 is #1.

A Facebook presence (personality, group, whatever you want to call them) called Ref Union has been banging this drum for a while. I was made aware of them the brief time I spent working for Referee Magazine when other staffers were talking about them in the context of this video:

I laughed. Don’t get me wrong – I believe there’s value in symposiums and consortiums and Summits and conventions and the like, but only if those ideas are brought back and IMMEDIATELY put in place. In my experience, there can be a little too much talking and a lot too little doing.

The NFHS Officials Consortium, held last week, posted an article about what was discussed (click on image to read the article):

What officials EARN is not mentioned a single time in the article. To be fair, I have no idea if it was discussed there, but if it was, it wasn’t deemed important enough to yield a single mention. It was all about sportsmanship, sportsmanship, and more sportsmanship, which could all easily be controlled if administrators simply threw out poor sports and barred them from returning. I’ll get to this next week, though. Don’t want to get ahead of myself.

So, Ref Union. They are primarily advocates in the area of off-season basketball – these weekend “elite” or “AAU” tournaments or whatever moniker they choose to run these tournaments.

I feel like a bit of a hypocrite ripping on these tournaments as my daughter plays club softball, coaches club softball, and does this year round and similar issues exist on this circuit, too.

Now, I’ve paid what I consider to be outrageous fees to watch my kid play travel softball at tournaments where we (by we, I mean the team) pays outrageous fees to ENTER the tournaments. Some of these places charge fees not only to get into the complex, but then also to park a car in the parking lot the complex owns. And of course, you can’t bring any food or drinks into the complex so you can buy bad concession stand food at inflated prices.

But nothing like this. $40 *per person*. So if Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa and a younger sibling go to this, it’s $185 cash money *just for that family*.

And the officials are making $30 a game. So one family covers the officiating for 3 games with just their entry fees. On top of that, there are tournaments where the officials are (1) expected to pay for their own parking, (2) are not offered any food or drink and (3) are expected to take whatever crap coaches and parents dish out cause “they’re the hired help.”

Considering the number of teams that go to some of these bigger events, I wouldn’t be surprised if the overall haul is in the mid 6-figures. And the officials are treated solely as a cost center, and an expense to minimize so the tournament organizers (and sometimes assigners, more on this tomorrow) can maximize their profits.

Let’s pick up on this tomorrow, where I’ll talk about the game fees for youth/rec/travel sports and how they are incredibly low EVEN WHEN good people advocate for officials and work to improve the working conditions.