Compensation for officials is going to be a large issue going forward. Rates rise very slowly versus teacher's salaries and inflation.Here is a laundry list.
1. Many varsity officials can't make a 4:30 or 5:00 start for a prelim game without taking some time off work.
2. Many varsity crews are not spring chickens anymore. Doing 2 games is hard physically. And the last thing you want is to be gassed in the 4th quarter of a competitive varsity game. Most conferences realize this and prefer to have separate crews for prelim and varsity for this reason.
3. If you work both games, you actually don't get paid for both games. The logic is that some portion of your game fee is to compensate for your travel. Since you are already there, they take some off the top.
I umpire baseball. I do HS at all levels.
For a 4:30 pm game on a Thursday I arrive a by 4:00 pm (sneaking out of work early) to get dressed, equipped and pregame with my partner. A varsity game will be normally done in 1:45 to 2: 15. Sub-Varsity are occasionally called because of darkness in March and April because the level of play is so poor. So I am at the field for for roughly 3 -4 hours by the time I am packed up and ready to leave.
Now those times are based on the following:
Visiting team arriving in time to get warmed up for a 4:30 start
Home team arriving in time to get warmed up for a 4:30 start - not all schools have available fields on campus
Field is ready to go at 4:30 - lined, dragged, mound ready
For a Varsity game (with partner), I get paid $65. For sub-Varsity (WITHOUT Partner) I get $62.
For a Varsity Saturday doubleheader starting at 10:00 am, I arrive by 9:30. For example, the first game ends at 12:10. Teams have a break for lunch (home team usually feeds visiting team). Second game starts at 12:45. Ends at 3:30. I have been at the game site for 6 hours. I get paid $110, NOT the $130 you would think as $20 dollars of the game fee is for travel. So for 6 hours of work I make $18.33/hr. If it was a sub-Varsity I would make a total of $106 or $17.67 an hour.
Remember in Illinois there are no time limits for games.
OR
I could go umpire three 12 year old games with time limits (starting at 9:00, 10:50 and 12:40) and be done by 2:20. I would get $55/game or $33/hr.
What would you do?
Many opportunities for officials, but not may officials.