My honest opinion it starts at the top. If the AD or lead administrator had a zero tolerance for bad conduct at sporting events games wouldn't get hostile.

I do think its a communication thing when it comes to coaches and refs. Maybe if we had an extra ref, like a first year guy, coming up learning the ropes, to be that communicator on the side and didn't get paid or was paid half of what the crew got.?‍♂️

 

 

5 minutes ago, theguru said:

For starters, I would be organizing with the other rank and file officials and I would make it very clear to the powers that be that we either get paid full price for scrimmages or we are not officiating any scrimmages.  You have to stand up against the abuse. 

Well, some Associations you did get paid. The one I was in it was a "you do want games this season so you will do them" kind of ordeal.

1 minute ago, Hip-Hop Box said:

Well, some Associations you did get paid. The one I was in it was a "you do want games this season so you will do them" kind of ordeal.

Which needs to be met with you do have a shortage of officials already and your draconian attitude and expectation that officials should work for free is going to make it worse. 

2 minutes ago, Hip-Hop Box said:

Well, some Associations you did get paid. The one I was in it was a "you do want games this season so you will do them" kind of ordeal.

I can understand why people wouldn't want to be a part of that association. They are asking you to do it for free. 

8 minutes ago, Cary Grant said:

I know several officials in all sports. One of the problem they tell me is the assignors are not held accountable by their policy boards. They do what they want to and treat their officials like dirt and they quit or go to other regions. The buddy system is really a problem as many assignors have worked with the older officials and they take care of them leaving the younger guys out. The state needs to take responsibility on this part of the problem. In NKY we will probably have to play games on Thursday nights due to the shortage. 

Through the years I have heard many complaints about assignors.

On the whole Thursday night game stopgap measure, that is another night of work in addition to Friday night and Saturday youth games.  I assume that is not what many officials signed up for and I also assume that many spouses/girlfriends of officials that are forced to work on Thursday too are pretty unhappy about it.  Additionally in some cases they are probably telling their lover if this is how it is going to be moving forward you have some tough choices to make. 

2 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

I can understand why people wouldn't want to be a part of that association. They are asking you to do it for free. 

I'm stepping away from officiating not for any reason of the Association but it did make much easier.

It warms my officiating heart that every posts so far agrees that we have a problem and there needs to be something done.  I will admit I went back and forth last night and this morning to write something up for fear that I might be told that there isn't a problem or that I don't know what I am talking about.  We just need to pay more and move games around to solve the problem by just using the supply we have.  

I hope this thread is read and re-read by a ton of people.  I realize its just one post posted on BGP but hopefully if there is someone that reads this who might be a Coach or a School Administrator or all of us that are just fans of the game can maybe think twice on our behavior.  We all love Sports or we wouldn't be part of this community on BGP, let's hold all of us accountable on how we treat everyone that is part of these games.

Proud of all of you and THANK YOU!!!!

3 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

$10 is cheap if you ask me, even for a high school game. Students get in free most places that I've experienced. 

People pay $5+ for a cup of coffee. 

Yep and the Starbucks near my home usually has a line wrapped around the strip mall about 20 cars deep whenever they are open. 

2 hours ago, Hip-Hop Box said:

We just went through this process this past season, and I'm sure theres several boards that it goes through as far as raising the pay. Each association is different... I know in the association I was in we didn't get paid to do scrimmages, that wasn't the case in other associations.

This fall, our officials were suppose to be free for our scrimmage, but we volunteered to pay gas money to each official, even though it was not required. We paid it from our fundraising money.  

 

Officials and coaches pay, including assistants, does not improve, those guys will get tougher and tougher to find. 

6 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

$10 is cheap if you ask me, even for a high school game. Students get in free most places that I've experienced. 

People pay $5+ for a cup of coffee. 

I disagree.  While my husband and I will pay the $10 each to get in, I start feeling guilty asking aunts and uncles or grandparents to ante up.  Last night all the little cousins came to watch my son and nephew's senior night.  I can't ask my school teacher siblings to spend $50 to take their kids to watch a high school basketball game.  As is it costs them $19 for two parents and three elementary kids and that is at our place that is $5/3.  We have paid up to $8 for a regular game and $10 for tournaments and "showcases" this year.  Heck this year between my son and daughter we would have paid over $600 in entrance fees if it weren't for my husband's coach's pass.   That is more than some can afford.

7 minutes ago, rjal said:

I disagree.  While my husband and I will pay the $10 each to get in, I start feeling guilty asking aunts and uncles or grandparents to ante up.  Last night all the little cousins came to watch my son and nephew's senior night.  I can't ask my school teacher siblings to spend $50 to take their kids to watch a high school basketball game.  As is it costs them $19 for two parents and three elementary kids and that is at our place that is $5/3.  We have paid up to $8 for a regular game and $10 for tournaments and "showcases" this year.  Heck this year between my son and daughter we would have paid over $600 in entrance fees if it weren't for my husband's coach's pass.   That is more than some can afford.

I agree that it should not be a pass through cost (at least not all of it) on parents.

In short, the schools and powers that be need to quit abusing the officials by refusing to pay them properly, forcing them to work additional nights, and bullying them.  In other words, the problem is systematic. 

2 hours ago, rjal said:

I disagree.  While my husband and I will pay the $10 each to get in, I start feeling guilty asking aunts and uncles or grandparents to ante up.  Last night all the little cousins came to watch my son and nephew's senior night.  I can't ask my school teacher siblings to spend $50 to take their kids to watch a high school basketball game.  As is it costs them $19 for two parents and three elementary kids and that is at our place that is $5/3.  We have paid up to $8 for a regular game and $10 for tournaments and "showcases" this year.  Heck this year between my son and daughter we would have paid over $600 in entrance fees if it weren't for my husband's coach's pass.   That is more than some can afford.

To each their own. It’s about prioritizing, IMO. $50 for a once in a lifetime thing? Again, that’s cheap. 

5 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

To each their own. It’s about prioritizing, IMO. $50 for a once in a lifetime thing? Again, that’s cheap. 

Pricing is all about economics. When the price rises, demand will inevitably go down. And just because people will pay $5 for coffee, doesn’t mean people will pay $10 to get into a high school basketball game. Two completely unrelated products in completely unrelated markets. The only comparison you can make is what do you think would happen If Starbucks doubled their prices like we are suggesting schools do with their ticket pricing? Those lines you see would likely go away. 
 

Don’t get me wrong, I do think high school sports are a great value, and I would probably be willing to pay more, especially if I had a kid still playing. But everyone has limits.

6 hours ago, rjs4470 said:

Pricing is all about economics. When the price rises, demand will inevitably go down. And just because people will pay $5 for coffee, doesn’t mean people will pay $10 to get into a high school basketball game. Two completely unrelated products in completely unrelated markets. The only comparison you can make is what do you think would happen If Starbucks doubled their prices like we are suggesting schools do with their ticket pricing? Those lines you see would likely go away. 
 

Don’t get me wrong, I do think high school sports are a great value, and I would probably be willing to pay more, especially if I had a kid still playing. But everyone has limits.

Again, it's about priorities. I understand everyone is in a different financial situation, but people prioritize what they want to do. High school sports is no different. 

People can't complain about the quality of officiating if they aren't willing to do what it takes (in this hypothetical case, pay more to attend games) to help fix the issues. 

Attendance is down and we are talking about raising prices? The timing doesn't seem right for that.