Assignor Fees

[Umpete]

For those of you who serve as Assignors, what are the typical fees? Are fees assessed by the game or is it a flat fee for the league? Are the fees graduated based on the level of baseball? I know it can be a real headache sometimes. I was just wondering if it was "worth it"?:question1:

[JamesC]

..

[dleavitt39]

The association I used to be in charged $105/season, regardless of if you got games from them or not...I was sick of paying that much as a college student doing maybe 10 games/year, so I started my own association, no assignor fee, and now I assign 2 different leagues, approx. 400 games/season.

DL

[JaxRolo]

One of my associations I pay $1 per game. Last year i worked over 250 games but made over $6,000 Not too bad

One association I work for this year charges $2

And I know of one that charges $5

[semper_fi_72]

Our HS Assigner gets $55 from each member.

Association Dues are $85

Therefore you work 2 games each year just to make back the cost of dues and Assignor fees.

Another Association has a $100 a year membership fee which is deducted from your first check each year.

I have also paid $1 a game assigning fee.

I have also and do assign for no fee. This year there will be fines for last minute cancellations if I have to find a replacement. Find your own replacement, no fine.

[tiger49]

We are $5 per game here. Basically if the team is paying $105 it is split $5, $50, $50 for a two-man crew and $50, $40, $30, $30 for a 3-man crew. We also decide when it will be a 3-man or a 2-man crew, so it is unfair to charge the teams extra.

The money from the fees basically just helps cover expenses.

[mstaylor]

The assocs I belong to charge a percentage that goes to the assigner. The summer leagues pays the assigner, nothing from the umpires.

[jnazz]

In the most organized association I work for, our assigner allocates all the games for the 90' diamond (13 yr olds all the way up to Sr. Mens). The leagues involved are Babe Ruth, American Legion and Men's at various levels. He receives 10% of our game fee which is directly paid to him in his monthly cheque (he also works some games and we all get paid monthly). Since the Men's league pays in cash, he chooses not to take a cut of these games but allocates them anyways.

Just a side note, all the games are played at two parks only so it's not like he's making a living at it.

The remainder of the associations I work for are fairly unorganized and are allocated by the local UIC and sometimes even the coaches. These leagues have no fee.

[yawetag]

My association charges 5% per game.

[Umpire in Chief]

I don't know the specifics, but in my association there is an assignors fee paid directly to our commissioner. We do have to pay dues which gets us a couple of free banquets a year.

[Ump29]

I am the assigner for my area. The fees are paid by the teams to me at the start of the season at a rate of 1 games umpires fee per team. This covers all their home games plus any playoffs. Any tournaments are charged a fee depending on the number of games.This totals to a very acceptable amount. I usually make more assigning than I do umpiring.

[widac]

The assignor for my HS group gets 10% per game. It doesn't sound like any two groups do it the same.

[retired-ump]

There is a total disregard for IRS Rev. Rul. 67-119 and the $5000 rule by approved community-based associations.  Rule of thumb...if the approving administration is the governing body of  interescholastic athletics and activites and they are listed by state  >>>> http://www.irs.gov/uac/SOI-Tax-Stats-Exempt-Organizations-Business-Master-File-Extract-%28EO-BMF%29

 

Nationwide, over 95% of HS based officiating associations meet and exceed $5000 rule.

 

Collectively, high school sports officiating is big business.  Amounting to millions of dollars per school year, per state.  Trying to find out how much schools districts pay is unknown, less that 10 percent reports 1099 earnings to the IRS.  School districts, members of the state's interscholastic league, are accountable and responsible for finanicial expenditures, regardless where the money comes from.

 

Over the years, it has been Little League, soccer, booster clubs, getting IRS attention.  That is changing.....I suggest association seek legal counsel and get legal by 2014. 

 

By the way, the highest game fee per basketball official assessed was 15 percent.

 

 

 

Retired-Ump

 

Website: http://lsoa-ga.info

[sdix00]

I think assignors are worth whatever they want to charge.  It is a thankless job and a pain in the ass.   

 

I would never assign for less than 10%, like a pimp. 

 

In addition to $65 for dues, I pay $55  for HS Assigning  for 20 games @ $75 = $1500 = 3.7%

Now THAT's a bargain!

 

I work for another guy who takes about 4%.  He has built a successful brand with a good reputation and teams get what they pay for.   He deserves more than $2 for a $50 game.   I hope he starts to charge more because I need him to stick around. 

[grayhawk]

High school is $3 per game. We pay $60 per year to be a member of the association (the assigner does not get any of the membership fee).

One league that I know of charges $10 per game, but their game fees also tend to be higher. Cash at the plate.

As Lou said, one association charges $110 (it went up this year) for the year, so the more games you get, the lower your assigning fees.

The guy that assigns AAU here doesn't charge a fee, but his game fees are a little below market. He also pays cash on the spot, which is nice.

Another guy (who is a U-E member - hi Bill!) charges $10 for Arbiter and $2 per game for summer/winter HS ball. Some cash, some voucher - depends on the school.

[bam]

$90 annual dues.  7% of game fees, with assessments sent out after HS, summer and fall seasons. 

[yawetag]

I think assignors are worth whatever they want to charge.  It is a thankless job and a pain in the ass. 

 

Depends. Twice last year I took the second game of a double-header after I was scheduled for the first. In the first, one of the umpires had a family emergency after he arrived, so I told him to leave and took the game for him. For the second, the assignor never scheduled umpires for the second game. In both of these, I believe the assignor isn't due anything, as he didn't do anything to get me the game.

[pnewton]

Every assignor that I have worked for has taken a small fee (usually ten bucks) from each umpire that they assign to games as well as collecting a fee from each league that they assign.  I assume that those fees from leagues are based on number of games as well as the level of competition.

[NCAAump2]

One of my associations charges $25 per season (so $25 for spring, $25 for summer) with no assigning fees taken out of game fees.  Another has a $50 dues at the beginning of the season, and that's it.  The local league pays like a normal job, so taxes are taken out before I even see the check.  For youth and summer tournaments, we don't pay anything...I believe the assigner gets paid from the TD.

[Ring 'em Up]

4 dollars a game here in so cal w/the cbua.  guess i'll get a bill at the end of the season.  i thought they were gonna take out the 4 dollars each time, but there not.

 

ron-

[Swifty]

One dollar per game in my association.

[Magic]

I assign Summer and Winter Ball for the most part. I switched to Arbiter because most of the umpires I use wanted me to make the switch. It was easier for them to accept games and it would automatically block them from getting other games. So I have them pay $10 each for Arbiter and then I charge them $2 per game. I don't think that is unreasonable. When I first started I didn't charge anything but now I am assigning close to 500 games an off season and it takes a lot of time to do. They make $50 for Incoming Freshman, and $60 for JV during the summer. And they make $60 each game for Winter Ball.

[BigUmpire]

I assign Summer and Winter Ball for the most part. I switched to Arbiter because most of the umpires I use wanted me to make the switch. It was easier for them to accept games and it would automatically block them from getting other games. So I have them pay $10 each for Arbiter and then I charge them $2 per game. I don't think that is unreasonable. When I first started I didn't charge anything but now I am assigning close to 500 games an off season and it takes a lot of time to do. They make $50 for Incoming Freshman, and $60 for JV during the summer. And they make $60 each game for Winter Ball.

What is their net pay for JV summer-50 ?

[grayhawk]

I assign Summer and Winter Ball for the most part. I switched to Arbiter because most of the umpires I use wanted me to make the switch. It was easier for them to accept games and it would automatically block them from getting other games. So I have them pay $10 each for Arbiter and then I charge them $2 per game. I don't think that is unreasonable. When I first started I didn't charge anything but now I am assigning close to 500 games an off season and it takes a lot of time to do. They make $50 for Incoming Freshman, and $60 for JV during the summer. And they make $60 each game for Winter Ball.

What is their net pay for JV summer-50 ?

 

$60 - $2 = $58

 

The $10 is an annual fee to pay for Arbiter.  Magic gave us the option as a group to use Arbiter or not, and we chose to use it for the $10 per year.

[noumpere]

I think that arbiter helps out the assignors much more than it helps out the umpires and so the assignors should pay for it and not the umpires.