Our divisional refs are paid anywhere between $100 and $200 per day for field refs.
Some refs receive travel allowances. Some receive housing allowances. Some receive transportation allowances.
All refs are given lunch, cold water, and Gatorade type drinks. All refs receive a reffing jersey.
All refs are required to have a reffing ID, but PSP doesn’t charge for this.
The NXL refs make between $800 and $1600 per event each. Their flights, rooms, and transportation are paid.
Tim Schroepfer receives an annual salary to administrate our divisional reffing program. It is more than $25K and less than $50K
He more than earns it.
We spent $23,000+ on reffing wages for the divisional fields refs in Texas. We spent $25,000 and change on divisional field reffing in Vegas. We spend over $27,000 per event on the reffing staff of the NXL field.
These cost do not reflect the $30,000+ that was spent to start this year on radar guns, parabolic secret agent listen device thingy’s, computers, and all the other techno gadgetry to help with gun cheats. Those numbers also do not reflect the money paid to the 10 people hired, in addition to field staff, to support the reffing crew through the event. That crew also has rented carts, a mobile office to function out of, etc, etc.
The clinic we run support themselves financially. We may have actually made a hundred dollars off the 6 or 8 we have run this year.
I will say that the reffing quality should not be broken down into a simple financial equation. Spending money doesn’t solve the problem by itself. I have proven that in years past.
I have committed a tremendous portion of the PSP budget to reffing. I have over committed. I have made a terrible financial decision in efforts to improve our reffing. I think our reffing has made an obvious turn for the better. Now I have to figure out how to sustain the financing. I am open to suggestions.
I am not optimistic about great improvements being reached in reffing in the near future. The field’s designs are to blame. The guns are to blame. The dynamics of the game are to blame. The incestuous attitude of the industry is to blame. The immature behavior of the players is to blame. Financial considerations are to blame. The list goes on. I do believe Xball is a great format to minimize poor reffing and or mistakes that humans make. But, obviously, it only goes so far.
I believe the NXL field at PSP events is the single best reffed field day in and day out in the history of our sport. It is cost prohibitive to try to duplicate that on other fields. I believe the divisional reffing at PSP events has come full circle. I believe there will be continued improvements throughout this year. But, it will level off at some point. And soon after, the players will take the lack of advancement as a move backwards, and the negativity from players will start again. Then industry types, who never even watch a game, will take the word of one of their big customers cheating team as gospel – bash the refs and the leagues, and the whole cycle will start again. Reffing sucks. PSP sucks and doesn’t care about the players. They’re too greedy to pay what it takes for good reffing. Etc, etc, etc.
Reffing makes up a huge part of our over all budget. $400,000+ per year to reffing, and $700,000 to prizes is almost half our total expenses for the year. Those are two things that are financed strictly for the teams and players.
I am proud of what we have done with reffing. I am not ashamed in the least of our efforts. I have nothing to hide, because I believe we are doing more than anyone could reasonably ask of us in this regard.
At last, I would ask that you guys not turn this into a PSP vs. NPPL affair. Every disagreement doesn’t have to come back to that – does it?
