Should we provide referee refunds to teams for games when a club linesman is required?

Some have asked about refunds or credits to teams which play games when a club linesman is required because of an insufficient number of referees for the game. It is a reasonable question. The simple answer is that instead of refunds, the money has been, and is being used to recruit additional referees. It’s not being “pocketed”. It’s not be redirected to some other purpose. And, frankly, there is not that much money involved in the first place.

In the Fall of 2004 the SLYSA administration posed the question of refunds to the Club Directors Committee. At the time, we were near the end of the fall season (11/4/2004). We had played 1,698 games of which 406 (24%) had not had a complete set of referees and were therefore eligible for a refund. After some discussion, the Directors had the foresight to choose to invest the money into trying to solve the problem for the future, instead of refunding the money. Since that time, SLYSA administration has used the money to recruit additional referees by paying for their referee class and providing a free referee uniform as incentives for anyone taking the referee class and refereeing in the league. The program has had some success. More than 200 people have taken the referee class since that time. As stated, in the fall of 2004 24% of the games did not have enough referees. This fall, about 15% did not have enough referees. Still not acceptable, but an improvement nonetheless.

Recently some have suggested that “SLYSA” is “getting rich” by keeping the referee fees. This is simply drivel promulgated by those who have no factual clue. Last fiscal year (Fall 2006 through Spring 2007), the total amount of funds that were used to recruit referees instead of being refunded amounted to about $3K. During that year, SLYSA collected approximately $275K from teams to pay for the referees and actually paid out about $274K to referees and assignors. As you can see, instead of “getting rich” the league had a net loss of about $2K with respect to referee pay, assigning and recruiting. As for this fiscal year, we expect the number to be somewhat higher; commensurate with the increase in number of games played.

Should we provide refunds? It’s really up to you. We think it is better to use the funds to recruit additional referees. If you disagree, let your Club Director know. If the majority wants refunds, then that’s what we will do.