In today's economy there is much discussion about officials' fees, tournament fees, and tennis fees in general. While there is no complete agreement on all issues, there are some things to consider:
TOURNAMENT FEES
* Consideration has to be given to the cost of balls, courts, officials, and personnel.
* Consideration has to be given to the fees charged by the USTA to sanction a tournament. Fee is usually $250.
* Consideration has to be given to the fees charged for entering the tournament online.
* Tournament entry fees in Texas range from $30 to over $100 on the average.
USTA FEES
* Consideration has to be given to a person's training, time, and job product when determining pay.
* USTA (and Texas Section) currently pay mileage, meals, and a fee for those who work for them in such things as instructors. USTA (and Texas Section) pays out huge amounts of money for people to attend annual and semi-annual meetings. Perhaps many of these meetings could be conducted by email or phone and save large amounts of money.
USTA OFFICIALS FEES
* Consideration must be given to education, experience, and production.
* Cost of supplies are also a consideration when considering fees.
* Rising cost of gasoline becomes a relevant factor.
* USTA officials fees in Texas range from $8/hour to $18/hour.
ITA OFFICIALS FEES
* Education, experience, and work product are strong factors to be considered.
* Travel time and expense should also be considered.
* Length of matches varies greatly and should be considered when setting fees.
* Average ITA fees in Texas range from $75/match to $620 per match.
These are just a few random thoughts when considering our officials pay. Its hard to justify $10/hour for an official standing in the summer sun for 10 hours a day when the tournament directors may make over $15,000 profit. Its also hard to justify $620 for an ITA match that may last an hour and a half.
On the other hand, I worked an ITA match that paid $120 and lasted 7 hours and had 6 hours of travel so that comes out to roughly $9/hour. I wouldn't say that is being overpaid...
Cost and pay are two issues that will never go away. We just try to be fair and equitable to everyone concerned--BUT if gasoline keeps going up, something will have to be done...
18 comments:
There has always been a cost for gasoline, but MTOA doesn't pay ANY mileage. So what's the difference now? That should have already been addressed.
I don't know of any local association that pays mileage for USTA tournaments. On the other hand, the MTOA does not pay ITA officials--the individual schools do. The prevailing thought of colleges in the Metroplex is that we should be able to find enough good officials in our area that they don't have to pay mileage.
We realize that MTOA doesn't "pay mileage" but they do negotiate the fees with the universities which could include some travel allowance.
In Texas the negotiation for fees with the individual universities is done by the coordinator for that school. MTOA doesn't set fees for ITA nor do they negotiate fees. The sad part is that it is difficult to ask someone to travel to the Metroplex when we don't pay mileage like they do in Waco, Austin, Houston, and College Station.
It is interesting that you bring up TD's making $1500 - that is very possible. You must remember that many of them that do make this kind of money are supplimenting their annual salaries. They work all year to build their tournaments and reputations. It is their quality of running the show that gives us jobs and pays for our lunches. You have to look at the big picture when it comes to our BOSSES that allow us to work for them. Or I guess you could buy/rent a facility, maintain the courts, pay the bills, and get all the people to play and then pay your own official a much better wage...and lunch.
All I am saying RM is that the ITA wages are TOO GOOD right now! We should NEVER complain about the pay! Even a seven hour match! The only thing we need to do is earn the great pay by putting the BEST officials on the court everytime PERIOD! OR, the coaches - athletic directors will DEMAND change!
TCU SUCKS ON PAY! Those are TOUGH matches (sometimes). Then you have the membership dues and NO travel - WHAT? You get what you pay for!
The actual amount I quoted was $15,000 and not $1,500. When the former is true, that is way too much profit for them to complain about officials fees and lunches. When the latter is true, then I think that is about right.
BTW, the $15,000 figure came from the profit margin for a Texas tournament and has been well substantiated.
I guess on my way over to help you with an SMU match I will stop at WalMart and get us a sandwich and pick up balls for the match!
WAIT! And some no-doz for anyone that is sleeping!
I am certainly not complaining about ITA pay. Its dang good and its what feeds me and my two labs... Some are long and some are short but that's the nature of the beast.
1500 or 15000 - what you get paid has NOTHING to do with what they make on a tournament - when you start feeling slighted - take on your OWN tournament. If you don't like the wages - someone else will do it. BTW - who are these (cheap-no-paying-tight-walletted that do not SHARE the wealth) TD's that make 15000? Seems like you could through at least one of them under the bus like you did the Official in your last blog!!!
RESPOND TO YOUR 9:48 post...
I am glad to see that you "think that is about right" what I make on tournaments - because I know - you know all that goes into hosting tournaments from year to year - and you know my salary - and you know everyone I have to pay - and you know the risk I take ... sounds just like our good American President. He knows that we need to share the wealth too.
First of all, I know what all goes into being a TD because I've done plenty of them in my life. What they make is totally irrelevant to what we make as officials but if they are going to gripe and complain about the officials pay then they should print out their profit margin and then we'll talk. I still maintain that $15,000 profit after its all said and done is way too much for parents and kids to shoulder to enter a tournament. I think that entry fees in the $100 range are simply obscene no matter what level if it involves juniors.
Second, "sharing the wealth" might be a good idea if we are sharing it with a bunch of rich people--and I don't know anyone in tennis officiating or tournament directing who is rich...
Third, noone was thrown under any bus. What I wrote about the OU-Texas match talked about the great evening of tennis. If you want to infer something from four linespeople on a match then that's your right. There ain't no bus around here though...
Don't forget that tournament directors have tournaments because they make money or they wouldn't be having them.
Tournament Directors are not always the ones making the profit off of a tournament. I am a TD for several tournaments per year, but I am paid hourly for running and organizing the tournament by the organization that I work for, and I am paid less per hour than the referee. I think that too many times people assume the TD's are running the show, but they can be, just like me, merely following orders from above. I, along with others I assume, would love to be making $15,000 for the work that we do, but our total income before any expenses is usually in the $8-12,000 range.
Not all tournaments are run by the local club pro. There are many local tennis associations that hold USTA sanctioned tournaments. The proceeds from these tournaments are used to promote growth in the area.
It is an outrage that tennis officials are so poorly paid - when these huge tournaments make a ton of money and the players are so rich ! Not right - all the officials should be making way more money and have health care and expensivesaid for- what a joke
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