Can you please tell me where I can go ref for $40-50 an hour?renegade 68 wrote:CommunityBased wrote:To those who feel the refs are so terrible there is a simple solution...become a ref yourself. You clearly have the ability to make perfect calls every time. My guess is you will find out A. it's a really hard job and B. fans and coaches are out of their minds...(and see through biased eyes).
Why don't we have as many good refs as we all want? Because the job sucks. People screaming at you and who often have no idea what they are talking about. I wouldn't do it. I won't let my kids do it. My daughter asked me about becoming a ref...I said no way...I have seen to many refs including kids in training berated by some way to intense adults(?).
In all seriousness if we want good refs we need to make the job desirable not miserable....and that means dramatically increasing pay to make the abuse worthwhile or get parents/coaches under control. I don't see either happening any time soon.
In a state where we have 10's of thousands of former hockey players why don't we have more ref-fing?
What would constitute a decent wage? I have been writing checks to officials for scrimmages, etc for the last 6 years and IMO, they are compensated more than fairly. What other part time job would you be able to make $40 - $50 dollars an hour?
As the parent of 2 kids that are involved in different sports over the course of the year I feel the single biggest problem with youth officials is that too many of them view themselves as more important than the kids they are there to ref. Just this weekend @ regions we were on the short end of 4 consecutive penalties (I had no issue with any of them). Shortly thereafter, there was a scrum in front opponents net, and we see one our players get hit from behind, smack her head against the goal, dislodge said net and layed out on ice for 2-3 minutes, 3 refs present and no call whatsoever. Crowd is going nuts, and what is the refs reaction? He points to the crowd and asks, "do any of you want to go home for the weekend?"
Referees are paid fairly for their service, and need to be held accountable for their performance at all levels.
My math goes like this:
The ref of a Bant AA game gets about $65
He left his house an hour before the game (if the weather is good)
Burns 3-5 gallons of gas fighting traffic (well say -$10 for easy math)
Game last an hour and a half if there is no OT
An hour later the ref gets home
15-30 minutes completing paper work at home if there are any game misconducts, CFBs or head contact.
So $55 after expenses divided by 3.5 hours is $18.33 an hour, only slightly more than my last part time job at Target which I was making $15 an hour at when I left. Then add in cost of equipment, registration fees and abuse on the vehicle to the cost. Don't forget how everyone thinks hockey is more important than school so we use PTO to make sure that kids can play in tournaments all year long. Time spent away from family, missed birthdays and holiday weekends.
Now I love officiating but before you say something about officials earning $40-50 an hour you should probably educate yourself a little better on the facts. If officials where making that kind of money there would be a line out the door to for officials.