There are continual threads badmouthing refs. If you want to be negative, please feel free to post in those threads, not here.
I for one appreciate the refs hard work. They get minimal pay, well under 1000 per game. These guys have full time jobs that they burn holiday and spare time on just to ref. They do it mainly because they love our game. They are not perfect, but they work damned hard to give fans the game experience we have. They make calls based on judgment, not all black and white. They get criticized for calls that we see in slow motion replays at multiple angles. Yes, they get some blatantly wrong, same as everyone in their day to day jobs, but I appreciate the the efforts they put into the game we love!
Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhhh! The officials do their best so we should be soooooooooooooooooooo grateful they don't make more mistakes.
If you really want to support the officials support the idea that they should be full time like the players. Like the players they should be working on their game during the week not squeezing in a few minutes here and there around a full time job. You're right, they do a decent job for amateur officials, problem is a professional league deserves professional officials and this lot can not be called professional when they can't give the game their full and undivided attention during the season.
And in anticipation of someone posting that NFL officials are part time I say so what. What prevents the CFL from leading the way on this issue. The officials are being asked to do a professionals job on an amateurs schedule. That's a recipe for disaster and I do sympathize with them to a degree.
how much would you pay said full-time refs? I believe it would need to start at 75K a year to get decent folks in. Are you going to pay a ref as much as a player? Until the lowest paid player makes over 100K a year, this is an unrealistic option.
sure, lets lower player salaries (losing some of our best in the process) and raise tickets prices (losing fans in the process) so that maybe we might be able to afford to pay the refs full time (which wouldnt make much difference anyhow) :roll:
Sorry, I do appreciate the job that the refs do, but if there is something that needs to be addressed such as the non calls on clips, people have the right to bring it up.
The amount it would cost would have minimal financial impact on the league as a whole but provide a huge impact on the ability of the officials to do their job at the highest level possible.
You support officials, but you refuse to support something that would give them what players already have, the time to hone their craft and work on their game from week to week to progress and improve as the season goes on.
And you are blind to the expense of doing this! Minimal financial impact? What exactly do you feel it would cost? I am all for full time refs, but also accept that is fiscal irresponsibility…just too big of a financial burden. Please explain how you would fund these full time salaries? My response to all this is is quoted below from another thread.
75K is a ludicrous salary and you know it. A figure thrown out just to make your argument seem impenetrable. Players have had off season job for decades and most still do so why should officials be any different. Even using your hyperbolic numbers 30-35k for a 6 month job would be in line and would only see CFL officiating salaries increase by 100-130%. Based on an average of 15k per year for a CFL official for 14 games and 5 crews to cover all games an increase to an average of 35k per year would see the overall cost increase by 700k per year. WOW! Your right, the league would go bankrupt in a month. :roll:
It's do able. It's just too easy to be cheap and stick their head in the stand with the thinking that the quality of officiating isn't that important.
75K is ludicrous? I don’t think it is at all. If you want quality full-time refs you need to pay. You use the term 6-month job…is it full time or not? I personally would not even consider taking a job that paid less then 2k a week. I would find an offer for 30K insulting for full time work…6months a year or not…it is full-time or it isn’t…full time means primary income earnings…35k is poverty line. What kind of talent are you going to recruit for 35K a year?
35K a year and you would be be considered full-time seasonal…you could not maintain a decent job the other 6 moths a year…are they to collect EI…pump gas? Who is going to give someone a good job for 6 months a year? If you want to attract people for full time work, even 6 moths a year, then you need to pay them enough to make a fair living…working out of season is just bonus money for them if they choose, same as a full-time employee who works a night shift now and then, or picks up a weekend job. 35K is insulting to almost anyone worth having. heck, most anyone you are looking to recruit already makes a full-time livening, likely over 40K, and coaches or refs at amateur levels…you are now asking them to forfeit their full-time job and dedicate their time to the CFL for half a year for less money than they already make…then go figure out some casual labor to supplement themselves…this is not full-time work…this is insulting, and IMO a pile more ludicrous than 75K a year.
While I would not work for under 2K a week, I would probably give strong consideration to 75K to be a ref.
Oh…aslo, not sure where your math came from…5 (crews) x 14 (officials per crew) x 35000 (salary) x 1.4 (employment costs above wages) = 2.45 mil a year…if you could find qualified people to take the jobs. still 3 x what is paid now, and as I said…I just don’t think you are going to retain the right guys at that wage. They are able to retain the present officials because they have a deep passion for the game and are able to get time away from their work to do this…I would strongly speculate few of them would quit their full-time job for that wage.
Oh…aslo, not sure where your math came from…5 (crews) x 14 (officials per crew) x 35000 (salary) x 1.4 (employment costs above wages) = 2.45 mil a year…if you could find qualified people to take the jobs. still 3 x what is paid now, and as I said…I just don’t think you are going to retain the right guys at that wage. They are able to retain the present officials because they have a deep passion for the game and are able to get time away from their work to do this…I would strongly speculate few of them would quit their full-time job for that wage.
I also have no idea where the 700K increase comes from from? by this link:
http://cfldb.ca/faq/compensation/
in 2006 the refs made between 550 - 850 per game. I generously called it an average of 800 a game because this is from 6 years ago. therefore…
4 (games/week) x 14 (officials / game) x 18 (weeks) x 800 = 806400
you suggestion of 2.45 / year - 806400 equals a 1,643,600 difference…where is you math coming from? Perhaps I am missing something.
Also, because of how it is all structured now, there is no wage x 1.4 because it would qualify for casual labor…not the case if you hire them on full-time.
What makes anyone think officials would want to quit their full time jobs to be a full time official? I recall the professions of some of the officials have been mentioned in the past and they were all in careers that made well over $75,000 per year.
far too many people forget that refs are some of the games greatest fans. Mostly they do it for the love of the game, not the money. They too care about making the right calls as much as anyone else, and you can bet that when they see their bad calls or noncalls on film, they are even less happy about it than most. Keeping in mind that there are bad apples everywhere, bad cops, teachers, preachers, etc, for the most part, no ref wants to be the one to decide the game on a bad call. Beleive it or not, they have their pride, just like everyone else. They are not out there trying to screwup the game for the players, fans, or teams. If they didnt care about getting it right, they wouldnt be there.
