I am always surprised that there isn't more support in the "System" for sports officials.I've been the 'umpire of last resort' for my local rec league for 10 years. Call me if the game will be canceled if I don't do the game. Most years I make less than $240. This year I made $320. The league gives me 2 polo shirts. I bought shoes, legs, ball bag, indicator, brush, and catchers chest protector over the years. Dark pants or umpire grey pants preferred, but jeans are ok.
You think I did pretty good? I've been thinking about umpiring after my DD graduates HS for 4 years. I know the head of one of the local officials' associations and he's been after me for three years to do a few games. When my DD was in 2nd year 12's I got cornered by umpires twice during tournaments asking me to umpire. Thinking about umpiring a few fall ball tournaments this fall.
So, I took the plunge:
Officials registration fee: $63
Additional equipment I need to be an official umpire: $280
Wait, that does not include pants, and I'll need to spend $70 to $140 more on shirts if I want to do both days of a tournament. So, I've already spent more than I made this spring umpiring and still have more to spend before I can umpire a tournament or HS game!
A friend does AST tournaments. $70-$140 for different shirts, need a different hat, maybe a different ball bag. Another $60-70 in registration fees?
I thought this was going to be an easy way to make $100-$200 a weekend?
Oh, how much are umpires clinics going to cost?
Slowpitch is definitely a different animal. I do both and at times I've done something silly in a SP game that doesn't apply because it's a FP habit (chasing the batter-runner all the way to third in a two man game for example).Update I still haven't bought a chest protector but have spent $330 to upgrade my gear and pay my registration/insurance to have a minimal set of gear to umpire USA softball. The friend of a friend who runs an official's association reached out to me yesterday to see if I would be willing to do a church league slow pitch game Thursday night. I told him I knew nothing about slow pitch and would want to attend umpiring training on the slow pitch game before doing a game.
Not sure if the official's organization charges a yearly fee to be a member of the organization.
The Florida heat and humidity take their toll. It's even more brutal when you're working at least three games back to back or iron manning it.$1000 a year? I might spend $1000 every 5 years total. If I'm unlucky, lol. Take care of my gear and unis and no issues. Heven't bought new mask or shin guards in over 10 years.