Yesterday while walking between games at Thomas Mack I bumped into two women's referees who were also walking and they were kind enough to chat with me. Both are calling WCC games over in New Orleans.
That conversation prompted me to reflect on a March 25th article I read in the Athletic and for the life of me I can't find where I accessed it .... when I went back it's payrolled.
We know there's gender discrimination in the pay between officials at men's and women's games. What I didn't know was that referees are considered independent contractors and responsible for their airfare and all other expenses. For those officials who are working smaller leagues or D2 or D3 they are clearly doing this for the Love of the Game. The article indicated that the range of cake per game for officials at lower levels ranges from $400 a game $1,500 per game.
Both of the officials I talked to were young and I asked them why they chose officiating. One of the refs indicated they thought they were going to go into coaching but they reffed for 6 months and fell in love with officiating. The other official indicated that she also loved to officiate him I had the sense she was less and need of money.
This was all in the context of me remembering Gordy the crank Wednesday getting teed up in the loss to UNLV. He was to put it kindly cranky and to put it more accurately a jerk. Given his longevity I would guess he's making as much as Lindy LaRocque so he's got to be north of $300,000 a year.
It's ironic the way coaches and many players treat the officials. The game would be impossible without them. And yet in the women's game they are so undervalued that there is gender discrepancy and pay and the pay to my way of thinking is insulting. There's an article below that indicates the tiny cost it would take to eliminate gender disparity and officiating. I would also guess it wouldn't cost a whole lot of money to raise the pay for officials in women's basketball.
This occurred to me in the context of wandering around the Thomas Mack Arena over the last two days. Vegas is a union town and at times it seem that there are more security guards, ushers, cleaners, food service employees, service workers than there are fans in the stands. I got to thinking what's the economics of this?
This is clearly a money losing operation and then the light bulb went off. The conference is paying for all this. The same conference that doesn't pay what I would consider a living wage their officials is more than happy to squander tons and tons of money at the tournament. Let me rephrase that to waste tons of tons of money.
Anyway I certainly hope we'll see the day when these important officials particularly in the lower leagues and D2 and D3 in women's basketball and for that matter men's at the lower level receive pay reflecting their contributions to the game.
Sorry paywalled
www.nytimes.com
2022 article
www.espn.com
That conversation prompted me to reflect on a March 25th article I read in the Athletic and for the life of me I can't find where I accessed it .... when I went back it's payrolled.
We know there's gender discrimination in the pay between officials at men's and women's games. What I didn't know was that referees are considered independent contractors and responsible for their airfare and all other expenses. For those officials who are working smaller leagues or D2 or D3 they are clearly doing this for the Love of the Game. The article indicated that the range of cake per game for officials at lower levels ranges from $400 a game $1,500 per game.
Both of the officials I talked to were young and I asked them why they chose officiating. One of the refs indicated they thought they were going to go into coaching but they reffed for 6 months and fell in love with officiating. The other official indicated that she also loved to officiate him I had the sense she was less and need of money.
This was all in the context of me remembering Gordy the crank Wednesday getting teed up in the loss to UNLV. He was to put it kindly cranky and to put it more accurately a jerk. Given his longevity I would guess he's making as much as Lindy LaRocque so he's got to be north of $300,000 a year.
It's ironic the way coaches and many players treat the officials. The game would be impossible without them. And yet in the women's game they are so undervalued that there is gender discrepancy and pay and the pay to my way of thinking is insulting. There's an article below that indicates the tiny cost it would take to eliminate gender disparity and officiating. I would also guess it wouldn't cost a whole lot of money to raise the pay for officials in women's basketball.
This occurred to me in the context of wandering around the Thomas Mack Arena over the last two days. Vegas is a union town and at times it seem that there are more security guards, ushers, cleaners, food service employees, service workers than there are fans in the stands. I got to thinking what's the economics of this?
This is clearly a money losing operation and then the light bulb went off. The conference is paying for all this. The same conference that doesn't pay what I would consider a living wage their officials is more than happy to squander tons and tons of money at the tournament. Let me rephrase that to waste tons of tons of money.
Anyway I certainly hope we'll see the day when these important officials particularly in the lower leagues and D2 and D3 in women's basketball and for that matter men's at the lower level receive pay reflecting their contributions to the game.
Sorry paywalled
At a ‘crisis moment,’ women’s college basketball officiating needs a way forward
The sport is more popular than ever, but in dozens of interviews, stakeholders painted a bleak picture of the current state of officiating.
www.nytimes.com
2022 article
Pac-12, Northeast Conference to pay basketball referees equally; data found 22% gap last season among top D-I conferences
The Pac-12 and Northeast conferences plan to equalize pay among referees for men's and women's basketball starting next season. An AP analysis found that among 15 of the NCAA's largest conferences, men's basketball refs made 22% more per game in 2021-22.