tournament fees

[Kent Ref]

Could people say how much is a normal fee for a day's reffing in youth tournaments.

I was offered some reffing but the fee was less than i got ten years ago so i declined. I then found out 90% of the refs were under 18.

I understand the purpose of these events is to raise money for the clubs but are we part of the charity?

 

[Ross]

Some tournaments I’ve done in the past I was lucky if I got a bottle of water. Going rate as far as I’m aware is anything between £15-£30 for the day plus being fed and watered

 

[Rowanmano]

The one I’ve got coming up in June is £80 for two days with food and drink provided

 

[OIREF!]

I've done tournaments where I got £50/60 a day + refreshments. On the other hand I've done tournaments where I've been happy to do it for free. You make your own choices.

 

[Kent Ref]

I have not done tournaments for a while but we were getting £80-£100 per day with free food drink etc.

I also found out the tournament had 12 active pitches and 13 refs. Seems a bit tight to me.

 

[Brian Hamilton]

Fed and watered at most I've officiated at. It's not all about the money.

 

[Sam_C]

Jeeeeez, I just finished working 7 games between two days for a Memorial Day tournament in the US and made $355, my hotel was paid for by the tournament, and food/water was provided. Sounds like y'all are getting screwed unless there is some other incentive that makes it worthwhile for you.

 

[Brian Hamilton]

Jeeeeez, I just finished working 7 games between two days for a Memorial Day tournament in the US and made $355, my hotel was paid for by the tournament, and food/water was provided. Sounds like y'all are getting screwed unless there is some other incentive that makes it worthwhile for you.

Yep, it's called giving something back. Service before self. Knowing the value of something not just it's price.

 

[Rowanmano]

Jeeeeez, I just finished working 7 games between two days for a Memorial Day tournament in the US and made $355, my hotel was paid for by the tournament, and food/water was provided. Sounds like y'all are getting screwed unless there is some other incentive that makes it worthwhile for you.

Honestly aren’t that bothered about money was just answering the question that was asked

 

[Sam_C]

I did not mean to sound pretentious or whatever other connotation was pulled out of that reply, I was unaware that people overseas were working without getting paid or compensated in some other significant way. Do I love the game? Absolutely, that is why I work my ass off to be the best referee I can be. Regardless, I'm never going to work for free: work is work.

 

[Nij]

I did not mean to sound pretentious or whatever other connotation was pulled out of that reply, I was unaware that people overseas were working without getting paid or compensated in some other significant way. Do I love the game? Absolutely, that is why I work my ass off to be the best referee I can be. Regardless, I'm never going to work for free: work is work.

Treating sport like it's a job that you need to get paid for, unless you are actually at the (semi-)professional level, is definitely pretentious at minimum.

 

[RustyRef]

It surely depends on the tournament. If it is for charity then I will happily do it without a fee, potentially expenses only. Whereas if it is a corporate event, such as when the large multi-nationals hire out PL and FL grounds for their staff and customers to play in games, then I would expect to be paid a reasonable sum for my time.

 

[Sheffields Finest]

I heard it was the Land of the Free and the Home of the brave, apparently not, putting America First matters more these days

 

[Sam_C]

Treating sport like it's a job that you need to get paid for, unless you are actually at the (semi-)professional level, is definitely pretentious at minimum.

Apologies for taking the thread off topic, but to hopefully get back on track it appears this is one of the many cultural differences we have. The tournaments here are very much for-profit, and the referees are an expected expense that comes from the tournament fees each team pays to enter. Referee's working for free does not exist here, charity games and u-very-littles aside.

 

[Ryan Woods]

I think its reasonable to be fairly compensated for your time regardless of the money on offer. I love reffing, I love the fitness, I don't love the constant nagging in the ear (Being light)
What I charge will always depend on the level, event, and format.
If i was to treat it like work i'd never referee....

If i'm giving up a whole day of my time i'd expect a minimum of £50, corporate events I'd expect more due to what they charge the clubs to enter.

I understand some comps pay less and fair play they may charge teams less to get teams to enter but as a previous person said we are not a charity! I got asked by a team back in April who i'm friendly with to referee a comp in July as it was for charity for free, I politely told him as its for free he would need to ask me closer to the time as I'm not making a commitment but if i'm free at the time then no problem.

Each to their own

 

[cwyeary]

It's okay Sam. I'm equally as baffled by this thread as you are. Teams are usually paying $400 to $500 to enter these tournaments. If it's a 200 team tournament, then we're talking about almost $100,000 to the club. You're damn right I'm expecting get my market value for my services.

 

[Sam_C]

It's okay Sam. I'm equally as baffled by this thread as you are. Teams are usually paying $400 to $500 to enter these tournaments. If it's a 200 team tournament, then we're talking about almost $100,000 to the club. You're damn right I'm expecting get my market value for my services.

Just to drive the point home, the aforementioned Memorial Day tournament had over 1600 teams register (over 900 referees assigned to over 170 fields according to my assignor). The MINIMUM entry fee for U9 teams was $695 and the fee for U15-U19 teams was $1095. Even if you assumed every team was paying the U9 fee, that is over $1,000,000 of revenue before expenses.

 

[Kent Ref]

The tournament i rejected made £6,800 PROFIT. The refs got £50 for a 10 hour day (£5 an hour). If the refs had got £100 it would have cost the organisers another £550.

This was not a charity event if was a fundraiser for the club. This is greed by the club involved. As refs we should be fairly compensated. 9/11 refs who went were under 20.

 

[JamesL]

Just to drive the point home, the aforementioned Memorial Day tournament had over 1600 teams register (over 900 referees assigned to over 170 fields according to my assignor). The MINIMUM entry fee for U9 teams was $695 and the fee for U15-U19 teams was $1095. Even if you assumed every team was paying the U9 fee, that is over $1,000,000 of revenue before expenses.

Clubs here couldnt afford that kind of money for a mid summer tournament, nor would the tournament get that number of entries.
As you can see above post the fund raiser earned them just shy of £7000 which in today's market would be just shy of 10000 dollars at a total guess. So yeh. It's worlds apart

 

[cdsman]

The tournament i rejected made £6,800 PROFIT. The refs got £50 for a 10 hour day (£5 an hour). If the refs had got £100 it would have cost the organisers another £550.

This was not a charity event if was a fundraiser for the club. This is greed by the club involved. As refs we should be fairly compensated. 9/11 refs who went were under 20.

The club only made that much PROFIT because so many people within the club gave their time for free...

I'm a referee who is also involved with a Colts football club in the South East.
We charge teams £35 to enter and have over 100 teams over the weekend.
We have six pitches and 9 referees, so they work in teams of 3 covering 2 pitches.... a nice balance and hopefully they enjoy it. The referees get £60 per day (plus lunch and water) for a 9am - 6pm day... not much really, but the refs costs us £1000 over the weekend.

All of our club parents volunteer to help at the tournament for free, and all of the committee work on the Friday setting up, and then from 7am to 7pm Saturday and Sunday for free.

I think that we have it about right. £60 is not much for a full day's work, but we have many of the same referees during the regular season so they know the club and are happy to support our biggest fundraiser of the year.

The USA model is clearly completely different!!