Off-topic: Tournament Participant Fees

[BLWizzRanger]

Currently on vacation at a place where there is a main stream baseball facility named after a famous, ironman baseball player.  I just got interested in seeing how an umpire would get involved with it. Imagine my amazement when I found out that the Tournament Participant Fees were $750 per participant.

Let that sink in with you.  Add the $100 per night hotel and food and other entertainment. My gosh, I thought what I paid for my son and daughter in their sports 10-15 years ago was steep. No wonder umpires get paid $65 per game here. /s

[The Man in Blue]

$65 is low.  Especially with that revenue income.  Tony Stark can afford it.

The outfit I usually work for pays $75/game.  Just checked their team fees, and their tournaments run anywhere from $700 to $2,100 with 3 to 5 game guarantees.

[BLWizzRanger]

1 hour ago, The Man in Blue said:

$65 is low.  Especially with that revenue income.  Tony Stark can afford it.

The outfit I usually work for pays $75/game.  Just checked their team fees, and their tournaments run anywhere from $700 to $2,100 with 3 to 5 game guarantees.

Just so I am upfront, I have no idea what umps make at this tournament. Hence the /s sarcasm tag.  
But, for 10 players, $7500 per team? $15000 per game? Minus two umpires - lets go with $75 per umpire ($150) with another $75 for the game announcer (re teenager) ($225).  Baseballs which must be returned if fouled off ($100 per game).  Lights?  Yeah, they are making bank.

[The Man in Blue]

My wife's nephew was playing at a new complex where we live, so my wife wanted to go watch.  It cost $45 for the three of us to get in the gate for a single 14U game (which was cut down to a 1:15 time limit due to weather) at the end of the night.

I should get into putting on tournaments.

[boyinr]

Just like the casinos. The dealers make squat and the house always wins. 

[Thatsnotyou]

Perfect Game out here charges umpires a registration fee to work their tournaments. And you have to buy their shirt and hat. Absurd. 
 

Needless to say, I don’t work those games. Agreed to by an assignor that doesn’t want to lose the per game assigning fee and doesn’t suffer from it. So instead of saying no, this is where we’re headed, perhaps. 
 

We always get the short end of the stick because collectively we have a ton of power, but individually we have none. 
 

 

[Old Skool]

It is my understanding that the iron man experience park in Myrtle Beach pays the umps $75 per game minus the assigners 10% so they are pulling 67.50 per.  This info was gleaned from my partner today here in W.TN.  He is originally from that area and is going back next week to call & visit family.  He did mention that there were accommodations for lodging for the out of area umpires.  On another note 15U -18U travel ball with PBR & 2D Sports Tourneys in the Memphis / Millington area pays $110 per game.  It’s hot as Hades & majority turf fields.  Humidity is usually 80% or above minimum.

[BLWizzRanger]

My wife's nephew was playing at a new complex where we live, so my wife wanted to go watch.  It cost $45 for the three of us to get in the gate for a single 14U game (which was cut down to a 1:15 time limit due to weather) at the end of the night.
I should get into putting on tournaments.

You should! Call it the:

One Man in Blue Tournament and only assign one ump per game.

Bank and double bank.

[The Man in Blue]

Blue Man Solo.  Navy shirts required.

Better yet, I will charge 45 teams a $1k entry fee each, then not pit any of them against one another.  I will schedule every game as a forfeit . . . everybody wins!  I just need 450 $2 plastic tchotchkes (all saying "Champion" of course).

45 teams x $1,000 each = $45,000 revenue

45 teams x 10 players = 450 tchotchkes needed 

450 tchotchkes x $2 = $900 expenses

450 players x 2 parents and a sibling = 1,350 fans

1,350 fans x $20 gate fee = another $27,000 in revenue

 

If you can play a game with one umpire, why can't you play one with just one team?  

[The Man in Blue]

Added: @BrentRad (I hope I tagged the right member) put out an episode about youth tournaments on his podcast The Fourteen Twenty Sports Bar Podcast (he used to have "Hey, Blue!").  Nothing groundbreaking, but worth a listen!

[MadMax]

On 6/17/2026 at 8:45 PM, Thatsnotyou said:

because collectively we have a ton of power, but individually we have none.

Because as soon as we form a “collection” (ie. association / organization / union), any power we have begins to erode due to squabbling about “who should be in charge”, and “who gets assigned to which games”, and “who is “better” than who” (and should get paid / assigned more). 

Leadership takes (a cut, a rake, a skim, a fee), and invariably and inevitably, someone gets butt-hurt about the operations of said collective. That someone forms their own entity, and subsequently under-&-out-bids the existing leadership in due time, likely sniping umpires from the previous entity by enticing with “better” pay and assignments. 
Then you get the “loyalty wars”.

The machine churns on. 

[MadMax]

On 6/17/2026 at 6:53 PM, The Man in Blue said:

$65 is low.  Especially with that revenue income. 

It’s not, in lieu of a complete accounting report. We don’t know what goes on to support those umpires. Are they housed? Fed & watered? Access to medical while employed? Laundry? Uniforms provided? All those things are important; furthermore, they’re overlooked variables when we start comparing these… “Destination Events” against travel, tournament, and local leagues. Tournament umpires get lured in by $75-$100 game fees, but then have to pay for their own housing, food, laundry, etc. So “to soften the dent”, assigners will put guys onto 4-6, 7 games per day!

On 6/17/2026 at 8:45 PM, Thatsnotyou said:

Perfect Game out here charges umpires a registration fee to work their tournaments. And you have to buy their shirt and hat. Absurd. 

The registration fee is because there is a lack of a vetting umpire organization / association in that region Another factor is that the entity hosting the PerfectGame -brand is anticipating either a skeleton crew of support staff (TD assistants, field marshals, etc), or they’ve been burned before on umpires leaving / forfeiting games. 
Adjacent to that, PerfectGame is very cognizant and protective of their brand; as such, they’re trying to dissuade (or prevent) umpires from invariably wearing sub-par, sub-optimal, or competing-entity uniforms. Ideally, those uniform items should be provided; however, if anything is provided, there will be umpires who will abuse that generosity. Purchase of those items compels umpires to take care of them, to an extent. Of course, PerfectGame’s brand gets affected, later, when those same umpires invariably wear those uniform items on rival events (“Buh! I paid for these! Buh!”). 
 

[Velho]

13 hours ago, MadMax said:

The machine churns on. 

 

[The Man in Blue]

On 6/20/2026 at 9:38 PM, MadMax said:

It’s not, in lieu of a complete accounting report. We don’t know what goes on to support those umpires. Are they housed? Fed & watered? Access to medical while employed? Laundry? Uniforms provided? All those things are important; furthermore, they’re overlooked variables when we start comparing these… “Destination Events” against travel, tournament, and local leagues. Tournament umpires get lured in by $75-$100 game fees, but then have to pay for their own housing, food, laundry, etc. So “to soften the dent”, assigners will put guys onto 4-6, 7 games per day!

Even with housing and food provided, that's low.  I do agree that "benefits" should have an impact on the pay scale.  Realistically though, "benefits" are just perks that some provide and some do not.  This goes back to the lack of unity in umpiring communities.  If we (collective we) agreed to set a standard or normalized expectations, we would make progress.  Instead, Weekend WCS Wally is happy to take an extra $10 and a hot dog to work by himself for 16 games this weekend.

On 6/20/2026 at 9:38 PM, MadMax said:

The registration fee is because there is a lack of a vetting umpire organization / association in that region Another factor is that the entity hosting the PerfectGame -brand is anticipating either a skeleton crew of support staff (TD assistants, field marshals, etc), or they’ve been burned before on umpires leaving / forfeiting games. 
Adjacent to that, PerfectGame is very cognizant and protective of their brand; as such, they’re trying to dissuade (or prevent) umpires from invariably wearing sub-par, sub-optimal, or competing-entity uniforms. Ideally, those uniform items should be provided; however, if anything is provided, there will be umpires who will abuse that generosity. Purchase of those items compels umpires to take care of them, to an extent. Of course, PerfectGame’s brand gets affected, later, when those same umpires invariably wear those uniform items on rival events (“Buh! I paid for these! Buh!”). 
 

 

Idealistically, I wish I agreed with you on this one, Max.  That fee should be going to providing some sort of vetting, training, uniforms, and/or benefits.  However, I am too damned jaded.  That cost does not compel umpires to take care of their uniforms (look around, you know that!).  It is simply a revenue stream.  Oh, sorry, "it pays for your background check" which protects . . . the organization charging me the fee, not me.

When I first got into the avocation, USSSA softball tried to get a foothold in the area.  They hosted one tournament, and then got mad because umpires refused to purchase all their RED (and, at the time, very low quality) gear.  Guys in the area refused because they were currently locked into having to buy USA softball gear from the ONE approved (read: paid his money up the chain) "official" vendor.  Now that USA has died its death here, a local guy brought USSSA back into the mix, and he has had to lure guys in with providing the shirts and hats and offering to pay their registration fees.  Again, and to your point here, COLLECTIVE POWER.  Two caveats with that: 1) this is coming out of the TD's pocket, not the organization's, and 2) there is still a large number of umpires who have not continued with the "new local" tournament org.

At least with NFHS, you can buy from a variety of vendors of your choice.  Even then, I have stopped adding the IHSA logo to purchases.  I keep a set of IHSA hats, and that is the best they are getting out of me.  (BTW, IHSA does receive a royalty every time their logo is stitched, stamped, or dyed into a shirt, jacket, or hat.)

 

DISCLAIMER: All of my comments are based in the youth/amateur game.  Obviously this changes at collegiate and higher levels.