Since I personally referee very few USTA junior or adult tournaments, I sometimes don't find out about things until they have been happening for quite a while--and that seems to be the case in regards to this post. The Metroplex Tennis Officials Association voted to raise the officials rates effective January, 2009. The new rates were the first rate increase we had in several years and were a much needed change. The new rates are $18/hour for the referee with an 8 hour minimum and the umpires' rates are $15/hour with a 6 hour minimum. These rates are slightly higher than the rates charged in Houston and Austin but both of those cities are currently at the previous rates charged by the MTOA. ($15/hour for the referee and $12.50/hour for the umpires).
Now that this has been said, the new problem exists in that various local associations are refusing to provide lunches for our officials and their SPECIFIC REASON is that we have raised our rates and they no longer feel obligated to provide meals. I have been an active official in the Metroplex since 1996, and at no time have I worked a tournament in which meals were not provided--until now! We as a group of officials should not be penalized because we raised our rates and this action by the various associations virtually negates any pay raise we might have received.
Thus far, the Ft. Worth Tennis Association, the Arlington Tennis Association, the Dallas Tennis Association, and some of the other smaller associations are refusing to pay meals. What a sad commentary about their support for officials. They will invariably say that the officials fees take away all their profits but I simply do not believe that line of reasoning. Many of them are making hefty, if not obscene, profits on some of their tournaments so their excuses fall on deaf ears.
I do fault the local referees for much of this situation though. When a referee negotiates with these associations they should make it very clear that our policy is and has always been that lunch and supper should be provided. This is standard policy in Austin and in most tournaments in Houston. In order for a tournament to be sanctioned they must have certified officials. We need to take a firm stand on this issue and hold our ground.
Personally, when I negotiate to work a tournament as referee here are my stipulations:
1. That the referee and umpires be paid the accepted rate.
2. That lunch will be provided for all officials and supper will be provided if they are required to work past 6:00 p.m.
3. The tournament also has the option of providing an additional $10 per meal per official if they choose not to provide meals.
This is just my standard when I referee tournaments. To date, I have never yet had a tournament director refuse to meet the above conditions and 100% of them have provided the $10 per meal fee instead of providing lunch.
Not only do I feel the associations are doing us a disservice, I think our referees should take a firmer stand in their negotiations.
I would welcome any and all comments on this vital issue...
24 comments:
Isn't our Sectional Chairman the head of or on the board of the Ft. Worth Tennis Association? If he is, then he should be ashamed of their actions.
I believe your information is correct.
I too just recently discovered the no lunch policy in the metroplex. Nobody would give me a straight answer as to why. We always have lots of snack foods at the house for the kids, so I brought an assortment along with fresh fruit. During the day (long and hot) when I got hungry, I told the site director I would be out in my car having a snack and to call my cell phone if they needed me. Technically this probably violates USTA rules as I was the only official working and I was not on the courts. But I'm going to put my health ahead of their desire to make a larger profit. They can explain that to New York if a participant complains!
There is also another place I work regularly and they are too disorganized to provide lunch. The referee is very much aware of this. So every time I work there, I leave and go down the street for 30-45 minutes to get a sandwich. There is no official present while I'm gone. This "lunch time" is included in my hours I turn in for the event. So in a manner of speaking, the tournament is paying me for time I'm not working and then I'm buying my own lunch. The referee is also aware of my lunch time. Again, my health is more important than the tournament's profit margin.
Now before everyone responds and tells me how unprofessional I am for leaving a site without an official, I wouldn't be doing this if they provided lunch. (How professional are they being by cutting out lunches?) One's health should be of primary focus for all of us! Direct your complaints to the associations that started this mess!
Of course the obvious solution is for officials to refuse to work events where lunch is not provided. No officials = no tournament! But I know that not all officials would support this and the events would take place anyway. And besides, I enjoy this work.
And by the way, I've never worked an event where supper was provided as well. . . even when working until 9pm or 10pm. That's a very long time after lunch - even longer if lunch wasn't provided!
It would seem to me that a tournament could provide free advertising for a sandwich place (i.e. Subway) in return for their providing free sandwiches for the officials - or at least half-price. I've never been in marketing, but this seems like a no-brainer! But I guess a tournament director would have to stop counting his/her profits long enough to solicit this type of sponsorship.
Come work for me and I'll make sure you get supper if you work after 6:00 p.m. To ask an official to work until midnight with no supper is ridiculous.
Personally, I don't take actual "breaks" during the day of a tournament but I know many officials do and I have no problem with that. I also have no problem if they aren't providing lunch for you to leave the site and go get something to eat.
On another note: when I ask you to be at the courts at 7:30 for an 8:00 start I always pay you from the 7:30 time. Not 8:00 as is the practice with some...
Correction: $18/hr for Referees
Let me further clarify: if the tournament provides lunch, I will sit there by the courts and continue to do my job while I eat. The only reason I take a "break" in my car or go down the street to eat is this: if they don't think enough about the officials to provide lunch, then I don't think enough about them to stand there in the heat and eat my own food. I know its passive aggressive on my part, but its just as passive aggressive to discontinue lunches after MTOA asked for a pay raise!
And I quickly figured out who won't pay for working prior to 8:00am. And for those events, nets don't get measured and trash/old balls don't get picked up off the courts before play begins! None of us should work for free!
Are you serious that our Sectional Chairman is part of an organization that is doing this? If he is, then he should be replaced. We need someone working for us and not against us.
I'd like to clear up a few inaccuracies stated in Randy's blog from my humble viewpoint.
First, all Austin officials are provided meals for both lunch and supper when officials work all Capital Area Tennis Association (CATA) hosted events. If they ever are not provided a meal (delivered), they are provided money in a site bin for one of the officials or site directors to make the "run" for lunch. Barring that, in the unlikely event a meal isn't provided, our association bills $6 per meal. (Perhaps this needs to be looked at for Austin area officials as I think this won't cover the cost of a burger and fries most anywhere.) In actuality, it would be "cheaper" for the tournaments not to provide lunch/dinner and just get it billed at least in Austin.
Secondly, Austin officials are not considering raising our rates at this time as Randy stated in his post. We remain at $15/hr referee; $12.50/hr. umpires; and to date we have no current dialogue for such a change.
Thirdly, and likely an unpopular view by many officials of which I'm one: I know of very few executives all the way down to the grassroots level of any company or organization that receive a 20% pay increase...that's what your MTOA pay hike accounts to. I believe in raising someone's pay but that's a bit much in my opinion. It would come as a BIG surprise to me if your tournament directors WERE NOT balking.
Fourthly, Austin officials raised pay rates to $15/hr referee and $12.50/hr official two years AFTER the MTOA increased their rates and we went about it in a stair-stepped fashion within that two years so as to not give "sticker shock" to our tournament directors who do the hiring and who may or may not provide meals. One does not want to bite the hand that "feeds us" or not as the case may be in your locale.
I have in several year's past worked as an official/referee for CATA hosted tournaments and others and we were rarely, if ever provided lunch. Instead we billed the meal fee, left the site to go get lunch and take an appropriate break for lunch and occasional ones throughout the day. It's called survival my friends. I don't think we'd have too many worker bees willing to come back and officiate if we didn't feed them nor allow them to take care of this on their own should the association not provide such. I wouldn't expect less from officials who are on their feet anywhere from 6 to 15 hours a day.
Respectfully,
Vickie Wright
Sorry, that was my fault concerning Austin and Houston. I meant to say they were at the same rates that the MTOA charged before we raised our rates. Please forgive the mistake... I have corrected it in the blog.
Personally, I do not think a 20% increase is all that much when you consider that the pay was only $15 an hour in the first place. We had gone quite a while without any increase and the price of gas alone dictated the need for a raise.
Whether we were justified in our rate increase or not (and I think we were) that does not justify local associations retaliating against us for raising our rates. The MTOA sets the rates and conditions here in the Metroplex and I think what the board votes upon should be upheld.
The MTOA tries not to raise their rates on an annual basis so the 20% increase is much smaller if you consider we had gone at least 4 years without any increase at all. When we were doing without raises do you think these associations were providing better food?
I do know of a tournament here in Texas where the young tournament directors split over $40,000 in profits following the tournament.
And they can't afford to furnish lunch for the officials?
I do know they were having a meeting last night in Houston to evaluate their rates. I'll be interested in hearing the result.
Just doing a little math here.
A 20% raise after five years of no raises comes to basically a 4% annual raise. That's nothing compared to how the cost of living has risen.
That's what you get when you bozos get too greedy. Stop whining and buy your own lunch now that you are making the big bucks. If you don't like it, don't work the tournments.
I wouldn't consider $18/hour for a referee to be greedy but then I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder--or, rich is in the eye of the beholder.
Personally, I think the issue should be settled since we thought it was in the board meeting when we raised the rates.
I also do not work those tournaments if I know they do not provide meals.
I am a board member of the MTOA and I will be recommending a 3% raise every year so we do not have to revisit this issue of a rate increase.
Does anyone have a way to go back through the last few years and see if local tournaments have raised/not raised their entry fees? If there is a higher income stream, that supports one side of this issue. If the income stream has remained the same, that supports the other. Also, are tournaments spending more/less on freebies for the players: towels, hats, t-shirts, water bottles, etc? It all factors in to the overall issue.
Just wanted you all to know that Lee Thornburg and I did a money tournament here in Dallas today and had a great lunch provided by the tournament as well as snacks at mid-morning.
Some tournament directors are to be commended!
A more disturbing new trend among us should be that we are pricing ourselves out of business.
Someone needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Greed always gets the better of weak souls and it would appear that is exactly what is happening here.
Did the MTOA Board ACTUALLY pass the pay increase? If so, I would like to see the minutes so I can tell who voted for the increase.
As an MTOA member I receive frequent requests for tournament availability. Please allow me to make a couple of suggestions that might make it easier on all of us as we consider our availability.
#1). When a request for avaialbility is distributed the umpire should list pay rates and whether or not, meals will be provided. Given this information the individual can make an informed decision as to whether she or he wants to be considered for the event.
2). Strive for tournament financial transparency for, at a minimum, sanctioned Junior Tournaments. I have no idea whehther tournaments are profitable, obscenely profitable or barely scraping by but, I can approximate entry fees based on number of participants. For those folks who think officials should work for free or sub minimum wage, how much do you feel TD's should make in the process?
3). In the interest of the membership the MTOA leadership should establish a "Meal's Policy" for area tournaments.
When it comes down to it, the more information we have, the better decisions we can make.
I have been an MTOA board member for the past eleven years and President for two of those. Here are some simple facts:
* The board unanimously to raise the rates effective January, 2009. This raise was well publicized to all tournaments and tournament directors months in advance before implementation. It cannot come a surprise to anyone.
* The board policy has ALWAYS been that meals would be provided. It is only in the last year or so that referees have not been holding tournament directors to this agreement. This was also voted on unanimously by the board years ago and has never been rescinded so it is still a policy in effect.
Hope this helps you understand the inner workings of the MTOA Board.
I know many tournament directors and would venture to say that the minimum profit a tournament makes would be $1,000 and hopefully the max is $40,000.
Remember, that tournaments aren't in the business of making a profit but providing a service for the tennis community; however, most tournament directors tell you they do the tournaments to make money. They couldn't stay in business if they didn't.
I do think $40,000 profit is a bit obscene but perhaps its because I wish I had been one of the tournament directors...
Ref tournament profits....a "site" can make a huge amount of money beyond entry fees on accessory sales, soft drink/snack sales and stringing fees. For example, a site with a soda fountain will rack up profits in the "obscene" range from every fountain drink sold.
Couple of facts to consider:
1. Referee pay is $17.50 not $18
2. Ref and Roving pay has gone up approximately 40 percent in 4 years,(12.5 to 17.5).
3. Unless you work in a restaurant, name another job that provides meals.
4. If you work a 6-hour shift don’t expect a meal. Be prepared and bring something with you as some sites are so remote that nothing is available. When a tournament is running 6-9 sites, it is virtually impossible to feed everyone.
4. Tournament expenses have risen drastically over the last few years. Officials expense now is about 30% of the gross revenue.
5. USTA now requires new balls for every match including consolation, and official at every site. Some tournaments are now required to provide a T-Shirt, player party, and these are major expenses. Courts fees have also increased. When you add USTA Player fees, Sanctioned fees, increase in ball cost, and a 40% increase in officials, it has become very difficult to make much profit, and yes tournaments are run to make a profit!!!!
6. Tournament profits have declined not increased even thou entry fees have resin
7. Has anyone heard that we are in a recession?
8. Last but not least, the MTOA may be pricing itself out of the market
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