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Umpiring expenses vs. what we make


concertman1971

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Ok, here is some basic math I did on what i will spend/make in 2023 for the JC/NAIA/
HS season. These are loose, average numbers. 

Dues $425 (2 college groups, no HS dues)

Hats (6 hats for 3 groups, amortized over 3 years) $50/year

Pants+ Hemming services 1 plate 1 base every year $150

Shirts $120 (new shirts every 2 years, 1 SS plate, 1 SS base, 1 LS plate, 2 colors amortized)  

Shoes $130 (plate/base replaced every 2 years, amortized)

Travel College $1040(based on a 20 game schedule, IRS mileage, and 50 miles each way per game) 

Travel HS $208 (based on IRS at 20 miles each way to 20 games)

(The above does not include misc gear (i like buying things!!!) or lunch, misc expenses  while to/from games)

Based on the above, I  spend a minimum of $2,123 per year to umpire 40 games of college/HS baseball.

Lets say the average College game pays $175 and the HS game pays $80. 

20x$175=$3500

20x$80=$1600

Total income $5100

Total Expenses $2123

Net Income $2977

That means over the course of 40 games for a HS and College season, I will be making an average of $74.43 per game. 

If I only did college, my per game net would be $80.75 per game.

When we take games for less than that, we are costing ourselves money. As a group of umpires, we need to stop taking $40, $50, $60 games. 

To any HS state director out there, please see that $85 per game is not truly $85 per game. 

To the college assignors out there, see above.

Baseball umpiring is expensive. It is a game with no time limits (at my level) and a game that requires the most gear to get started. 

Since there is no national org for HS/college umpires, how do we fix this? 

Here are some links to officials Pay

https://forum.officiating.com/basketball/24662-college-referee-fees.html

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-football/college-officiating-needs-fixed-insiders-say/

https://www.ghsa.net/sites/default/files/documents/officials/Appendix_F22-23.pdf

https://www.uiltexas.org/athletics/officials-fee-schedule

https://www.sapling.com/12026472/ncaa-basketball-official-salary (note the difference per game from basketball to baseball)

https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/college-basketball-refs-hustle-pay-212006385--ncaab.html (2013 article..........)

 

Please share your thoughts.  I know many of us do it for the love, but it can be difficult!!

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I hate to be that guy... but two things:

 

1) If the pay isn't worth it to you, don't work the games. Comparing D1 pay to D2/D3/NAIA pay isn't an apples to apples comparison. 

2)What have WE done as officials to deserve a raise? I would much rather have a 3rd on the field at the college level than a pay raise. I'd take both actually. 

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I for one don't like that all we've been hearing about the last 10 years is how there are fewer and fewer umpires to work more and more games...and fees have remained the same. Yes, we get increased fees for working games solo and that's a nice bump but, the base game fee has remained the same. Funny thing about capitalism...when things favor the worker (too much work for not enough workers), the market does not seem to respond to that.

~Dawg

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1 hour ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

I for one don't like that all we've been hearing about the last 10 years is how there are fewer and fewer umpires to work more and more games...and fees have remained the same. Yes, we get increased fees for working games solo and that's a nice bump but, the base game fee has remained the same. Funny thing about capitalism...when things favor the worker (too much work for not enough workers), the market does not seem to respond to that.

~Dawg

I make less to work a 1 man jv game then a 2 man varsity game.  That being said, who else is going to provide umpires for the lower level games?

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17 hours ago, JSam21 said:

I hate to be that guy... but two things:

 

1) If the pay isn't worth it to you, don't work the games. 

I agree 100%. However, if I didn't want to work the games I wouldn't take them. I truly enjoy umpiring. 

This was more about the cost of doing it vs. the fact that pay is nearly the same as it was 5 or 6 years ago. Some umpire gear has gone up 50% in the past 3 years (shoes/pants, etc). Pay??

17 hours ago, JSam21 said:

2)What have WE done as officials to deserve a raise? I would much rather have a 3rd on the field at the college level than a pay raise. I'd take both actually. 

I will speak for myself, but camp's, clinics, reading the rule book,  etc is what I have done. I didn't even put that into the cost of umpiring. 

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20 hours ago, concertman1971 said:

That means over the course of 40 games for a HS and College season, I will be making an average of $74.43 per game. 

In an essence, for most of us, our regular job subsidizes our part time job. If you had to rely on that kind of money to pay appreciable bills such as mortgage, cars, etc, it would not be sustainable. Most of us have another significant source of income that sustains our lifestyle. Officiating is a hobby. The only difference between other hobby's like golf, tennis, softball, hiking, etc, is that officiating affords you some beer money.

To the vast majority, it's just a little extra play money. It's a part time gig, and it always will be. Not to be judgmental, but in my experience, the people I have met that officiate as their sole source, or a major source of income look like they live out of their cars. For the vast majority of sports officials, it's not, nor can it ever be a career path.

In case some missed it, here is a link to a thread where I expressed my opinions about our rate of pay. See my first post:

19 hours ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

Funny thing about capitalism...when things favor the worker (too much work for not enough workers), the market does not seem to respond to that.

In our case, the market forces are a little different. For one, our hobby is only a part time job, no benefits, the same rate of pay regardless of experience, and we're mostly independent contractors. If officiating could be a full time job, then things would be different. Part time jobs are not always affected affected by the same market forces as higher skilled careers. Trucking is a good example, SH*#ty pay with supposedly a worker shortage. Officiating and trucking share one thing in common, most are independent contractors, or de-facto treated like one. It's hard to organize and demand better working conditions when your core group is fractured. Part time jobs are usually not too skilled, have a high rate of turnover, and are not career oriented. And this is all okay, part time jobs have a place in our society, but they are separate from full time skilled career jobs, and they need to be treated as such. I don't expect a low skilled part time minimum wage job to be controlled by the same market forces as a highly skilled career path job.

 

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9 hours ago, concertman1971 said:

reading the rule book

This 👆 little bit here is actually more cost than you think. 

Take note, that OBR is available online. Sure, it's buried deep in MLB's website, but it is available for free. 

NCAA and NFHS? 

"Free Access"
despicable-me-minions.gif

Both Rulebooks and supplementary resources are hidden behind paywalls. Obviously the definition of "public institution(s)" doesn't translate to making those resources available to the public. 

Heck, the NFHS Rulebook is still printed and circulated on paper!!! If you really want to save on overhead costs, why not just host it in a web archive that can be accessed – and modified and corrected near-instantly – at any time? 

Oh no no... but how then would we (NFHS) control who accesses it? We have to compensate for getting together in 4 days of meetings, with all the breakfasts, lunches and dinners necessary to discuss whether or not eyeblack is distracting enough to be dealt with a rule interpretation. 

No offense to @lawump intended. 

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16 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

NCAA rule book is available free online.  They even offer it in three different digital formats.

Oh? 

yes-frank-nelson.gif

You don't say?! 

Needless to say, I'll be downloading and employing this often. 

Thanks, TMIB!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/19/2022 at 8:17 PM, MadMax said:

 

Oh no no... but how then would we (NFHS) control who accesses it? We have to compensate for getting together in 4 days of meetings, with all the breakfasts, lunches and dinners necessary to discuss whether or not eyeblack is distracting enough to be dealt with a rule interpretation. 

No offense to @lawump intended. 

It was 2 1/2 days...and committee members were not/are not paid.  😛

With that said, I do believe (not positive...I've never seen the NFHS' financial books) that the sale of rulebooks/publications is a major source of revenue for the NFHS that significantly contributes to covering their overhead.  Whether one believes that, that overhead is legitimate or not...opinions will vary greatly I do believe.  

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  • 3 months later...
On 11/19/2022 at 12:45 PM, JonnyCat said:

"...Part time jobs are not always affected affected by the same market forces as higher skilled careers. Trucking is a good example, SH*#ty pay with supposedly a worker shortage. Officiating and trucking share one thing in common, most are independent contractors, or de-facto treated like one. It's hard to organize and demand better working conditions when your core group is fractured...

It's almost impossible. I speak as a former owner of a sporting official group where baseball was our primary focus. We were the employers of IC sporting officials and the 'union' interfacing with the main employers (parks/recs, LL, adult pro, etc.). We pushed hard for increases in pay but the always excuse was there "was no budget for it". Uh-huh.

 

 

 

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On 11/18/2022 at 4:56 PM, SeeingEyeDog said:

I for one don't like that all we've been hearing about the last 10 years is how there are fewer and fewer umpires to work more and more games...and fees have remained the same. Yes, we get increased fees for working games solo and that's a nice bump but, the base game fee has remained the same. Funny thing about capitalism...when things favor the worker (too much work for not enough workers), the market does not seem to respond to that.

~Dawg

Just to follow up...I made this post back in November. It is now 4 months later and I am pleased to report that my association has indeed received SIGNIFICANT fee increases (JV and Varsity are up 23%) over last year's fees. So, I will simply state that again...there is a nationwide drought of available officials. All of us should be out there demanding higher fees.

~Dawg

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That is a hell of a bump @SeeingEyeDog.  Any idea what the driving factor was?  What are you basing that on (e.g., individual school's pay or an association paid structure)?

This may be an unpopular opinion, but the pay problem is not at the scholastic level. It is at the tournament level where there is a profit-driven motive.  When a tournament has a $500 entry fee for a 4-game minimum (that means they are taking in $1,000 in JUST entry fees for those four games), we should be seeing more than $45-$50/game.

For school ball, we have been seeing game checks creep up $5-10 recently.  This is because a few schools have decided they want to pay better to attract better officials.

In the climate around here, we don't set our pay, we take what is out there.  That doesn't mean we can't "demand" better pay though: don't take the games.  That is what you have to be willing to do.  I always say, "I don't do it for the pay, but I also don't do it for the pay."

 

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@The Man in Blue, I umpire in what I would classify as a top 5 market by disposable income. When I was growing up here, you had to be asked to tryout for travel baseball and then be selected to the team following tryouts. Now, ALL youth travel sports here have become a cottage industry. We have former college and minor league athletes who have migrated here to set up athletic academies that bleed parents financially dry with vague promises for their kids to ascend to play college sports. Travel sports have now become a status symbol for parents. They want to be able to tell anyone and everyone that their kids play travel sports. (Gotta' sport that team/league magnet on the family truckster!) So, if you can afford the price of participation? Your child can play travel regardless of ability. And the overall play level of travel ball has suffered. We all have seen that as umpires. Legion Ball used to be really elite high school prospects. Now? Travel has fractured Legion.

So, with the incredible growth of travel sports in my coverage area (to include baseball) coupled with an aging umpire population many of whom are retiring from umpiring, we have an over abundance of baseball games (HS, travel, Legion, LLJ and LLS, men's leagues) against a dearth of umpires. Also, I don't believe we have had any increases since before COVID. I have done some contracting in a previous life and I have always found it best to have small increases period over period rather than no increases for several periods and then hitting a client with a big increase. But, that's not how market economics work. Hopefully, you have a client base that is interested in developing long relationships. That way both of you can look back over the length of the relationship and say, "Yeah, we had some years as the provider where we made bank on these guys." and other years where you can say, "Yeah, we had some years as the client where we got exceptional value for our vendor's products and services". Like any relationship, there are ups and downs for all concerned parties but it's the entirety of the relationship that bonds you. It's harder to find new clients than it is to take care of current clients.

I'm not involved in my association's contract negotiations so, I can't speak to the rubber meeting the road on the final agreed upon fees. It is what it is...a really great time to be an umpire from a fees perspective.

~Dawg

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A couple fellow umpires in our association were having this conversation as well. All three of us are arriving at the point of no longer doing travel ball because the pay doesn't match what the parents and coaches (and sometimes even the players) throw at us. In the western part of the U.S. it's not uncommon (especially in my area) for teams and umpires to travel several hours for a tournament. Then the TD doesn't cover hotel or travel expenses? I made this point on a different thread, but for one tournament four hours away (in a town I don't know anyone--so hotel stay is required), I'd have to work 5-6 games just to break even. I don't umpire for the money, but I'm not going to put in 6 games "to break even."

I think for the foreseeable future, I'll stick with LL (paying back the program for my son), HS, and Legion. Travel ball just isn't worth it to me.

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Most places around here will put you up if you travel more than 60 minutes/miles. The only one that I know that didn't do that was my local facility, which went under at the end of last season.

Places that don't ... struggle to get umpires. and really struggle to get quality umpires.

 

While I was in Mississippi I turned down a few "big" tournament offers because they were 2+ hours away and no hotel.  They offered to connect me with another umpire that I could split the hotel cost with.  Gee, thanks but no thanks.  🙄

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I cannot be paid enough to work travel ball.  The quality of ball that parents want to believe their kids portray isn't close to the level they play at.  And the kids think they are some type of elite athletes at the age of 12. $50 ain't worth my time or the bullshight you are required to put up with.

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I work HS, Legion, some Babe Ruth (preferably 15U and up because lower levels are mostly bad) and travel ball with a catch. I only work 15U-18U travel ball, nothing below that where you have to deal with crazy parents and coaches.  

In my area, I have found the Prep Baseball Report (PBR), Worthington Wood Bat and the Buckeye Elite tournaments in Ohio are really good and bring teams in from several states around plus Canada. I've had an EJ on a player, but never a major issue with a coach or fan yet.  It's normally good baseball, $65-70 per game and I can work multiple games per day all within less than an hour's drive (sometimes as close as 10 minutes away).  For me, the issue becomes a danger of over-heating physically due to the sun & humidity more so than a danger of over-heating from stupid comments from ignorant people.

But with the increased cost of everything umpire-related, I would like to see them keep giving us an increase annually, even if only a small increase versus waiting 5+ years for the next one.   In OH, we have gone from an average of $50 per game to $60+ per game for summer ball.   HS Varsity is up to $69 while JV and Freshmen are $60 this year (was $55 V, $42 JV and $40 F).  Most of the tournaments I'm seeing are offering at least $65 for this summer.  I got $70 a few times last year if I had to drive more than 30 miles, the assignor threw me some gas money which was nice of him.

And one of the assignors that I know who is looking for guys for tourneys this summer has already offered hotel stays for those in need. So, I guess it all depends on the area and how badly they want/need the good umpires.  

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School ball:

I did not work school ball in Mississippi, so I can't speak to those fees.  (First year was still coming off COVID, and nobody ever got back to me.)

Up here, I guess our school fees are actually looking decent!  This first week has been all softball for me, but it's all been $95-$100 for a varsity game with 3 innings of JV afterwards (only one of those did we actually play the JV innings).  We are probably getting shorted for the JV innings because a single varsity game is $70-$75.  This past fall I was getting anywhere from $65 to $80 for middle school games (which now have a sanctioned 2-hour time limit).

Summer/travel ball:

Just got an e-mail this morning from a facility about an hour away.  $65/game for privately run IHSA sanctioned jamboree baseball games over the next couple of months.  2:15 minute time limit.

In Mississippi I started working youth baseball tournaments that were paying $45-$50/game for PITA level ball (granted, it was cash so many guys put up with it).  Found some other organizations and was working varsity level tournaments for $75/game (some travel with hotel, some local) when I left.  I had heard they were paying $100 for those same games in Tennessee (don't know if that is true).

Up here, I'm trying to go back to working softball in the summer, but I'm not convinced.  Things have changed so much since I left.  Used to be I would not work travel baseball because of the poor state of things around here (poorly run tournaments).  I worked strictly softball and had a few facilities that I would work because I knew they were well run.  Those are gone (or virtually gone).  The dominant sanctioning body has fallen apart (USA Softball) and USSSA has taken over.  I have some reservations about USSSA (based on how poorly they get information out and how poorly they handle their umpire uniforms ... plus, my personal bias, I hate the red shirts).

This summer will be experimenting and starting over.  I reached out to a group to possibly do some real travelling around the country for softball.  I may dabble in some baseball.  We'll see.  This is the first summer that I am not trying to fill every weekend, too.  Everything will be at least an hour drive because the local group folded.

y weekend, too.  

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22 hours ago, 834k3r said:

A couple fellow umpires in our association were having this conversation as well. All three of us are arriving at the point of no longer doing travel ball because the pay doesn't match what the parents and coaches (and sometimes even the players) throw at us. In the western part of the U.S. it's not uncommon (especially in my area) for teams and umpires to travel several hours for a tournament. Then the TD doesn't cover hotel or travel expenses? I made this point on a different thread, but for one tournament four hours away (in a town I don't know anyone--so hotel stay is required), I'd have to work 5-6 games just to break even. I don't umpire for the money, but I'm not going to put in 6 games "to break even."

I think for the foreseeable future, I'll stick with LL (paying back the program for my son), HS, and Legion. Travel ball just isn't worth it to me.

In sales, I was always taught to try not to be the one who shuts down the deal. Don't say no...comeback with your own solution that would help you overcome the obstacles currently preventing you from doing the job. I presume you have but, in case you haven't...sit down and work out the economics of the summation of what it would take for you to work for that TD. Hotel, gas, food and game fees, etc. What is that number for you? And then they can either provide those things or adjust the game fees to compensate you directly for them. They will probably say no...and that's ok. But, instead of saying no, I am not working for you, you don't pay me enough? You are laying out the specifics. So, then the conversation becomes in order for me to work this tournament, I need to receive this compensation. Maybe they counter-offer, maybe they don't but, you are keeping the dialogue open which is how we get compromises. I don't care where you are and what level you are working. None of us are being paid enough. The time is now to do something about that.

~Dawg

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