MAPLE Refs do it again

[MASC]

Fourth officials must be requested by the local assignors. Assignors usually try to get one at least once a season at fields that are heavy scheduled. Depending on the field and officals the mentor might be in street clothes and even watch from the spectator side of the field.

The sad reality is that even when 4 officials are scheduled, one occasionally cancels and the fourth official works on the field for all of the games.

At the larger facilties, e.g. Devens, MAPLE also has many games being played. If a MAPLE game is short officials, they will ask for a referee to help.

Several times, MASC referees have been asked to fill in for missing MAPLE referees, so the fourth official is lost. Sometimes the shortage has been so large, that an assigned group of 4 gets reduced to 2 or 1 so that all games can have referees.

The budget is to have approximately 12% of the games be mentored. Given the difficulty getting qualified offiicials and as close to full crews as possible 7% is the best the we have been able to achieve since the program started two years ago. We would like to have each referee seen by a mentor (fourth official) at least once a year.

Referees who are willing/able to travel to the heavily utilized facilities will have a much greater chance of working with a fourth official.

[Unregistered]

The amount of money that parents spend on some of these clubs, some of the cash should go to officials/administrator positions.

What and the near $1000 per team Maple and MASC charge should not? Clubs also have to pay for the fields for games and lot of times Maple or MASC schedule teams not even from that club on those fields. How many teams do Maple and MASC have? That is a huge huge chunk of change.

[MASC]

MASC budgets to have a modest loss each season, between $20 and $100 per team. Most of the cost goes to paying referees. Administrative overhead is under $50 per team per season. Forfeits and referee shortages cover the budget short fall.

Any interested parties are welcome to attend the MASC BOD Meetings. The budget and balance sheet are reviewed at each meeting.

"Visiting" teams are scheudled on fields to maximize the use of qualified officials. There are not enough referees (forget whether they are qualified) to handle all of the games on SUnday afternoon if only one game is scheudeld per field.

MASC recognzes that the economics of soccer have changed and field rental costs are a major part of all club budgets. Playing at Citizen is not cheap. Other facilities have increased or introduced fees. In some towns the cost to play a single game is $200 on a lighted turf field. Most clubs also pay for their practice fields.

When I coached town soccer, the cost per player per season was $25 and if more than three played from the same family the 4th on were free. After one game a parent came to me and said that she did not feel they were getting their money's worth. I was so shocked, I didn't know what to say. As the coach, I spent out of pocket almost $1,200 per year to buy equipemnt (keeper gloves, game balls, cones, etc.) and cover the shortages when parents didn't pay for their children at tournaments or indoor facilities. When I coached club. my out of pocket costs were even higher. Thankfully some of the fathers understood and pitched in also.

Please be realistic in what value is being received. My children are now in college. I am hard pressed to see that they are receiving fair value for the money spent. Club soccer is reasonable for the value received.