How Much I Made This Spring Refereeing Soccer

Last fall I noted that my son and I had started refereeing soccer games as an added source of income. This post will give you an update on how we progressed in this effort since then.

Between the fall and spring soccer seasons, there was one major event that took place. I went to a class and passed the test to become a Level 8 US Soccer Federation referee. I know this doesn't mean anything to most of you, but the summary is that with this level of certification I was now able to be a center referee at our paid games -- which generally pays twice as much or more than what assistant referees (ARs, aka linesmen) are paid. BTW, my son wasn't able to take the class/test because he's not old enough. So he remained a Level 9 referee and was still able to be an AR for paid games.

This year's money-making effort was complicated by the fact that my son decided to PLAY soccer this season as well as referee. And he played not just for one team but for two of them. Since 95% of soccer games in our area are on Saturdays, this meant that much of the time that could have been spent making money was instead allocated to playing/watching soccer. That was a trade-off I was happy to make, but it certainly did impact our earning results. (BTW, I did referee several of his games -- they were AYSO/non-paid games -- and was about 10-yards away from him when he scored his first goal of the year. Priceless!)

Anyway, here are our results (for both of us combined):

• Number of games: 13
• Amount earned: $440
• Amount earned per game: $33.85

And for comparison, here are last fall's results:

• Number of games: 19
• Amount earned: $465
• Amount earned per game: $24.47

And a few other pieces of information:

• Non-paid/volunteer/community/AYSO games refereed this spring: 17 (including 7 at a year-end tournament)
• Costs incurred (equipment, classes, etc.): $80
• Mileage incurred: 265
• In addition to the pay above, we received $60 in Applebee's gift cards and some free referee equipment (not to mention all the food we could eat from the snack bar) for working a tournament at the end of the year.

A few comments given this information:

• We only did 13 games this season but we made much more per game (due to the fact that I center reffed many games as well as the fact that we reffed higher-level -- thus better paying -- games this season). Thus we ended up making almost as much in absolute dollars.
• When you look at the expenses (and assume a cost of $0.50 per mile), you'll see that we made very little, roughly $230. On a per hour basis, this pay is really low.
• My son, who pays none of the costs and to whom $220 is a lot of money, LOVES this deal. He's rich! Me, not so much.
• We do have fun at it, get some exercise, and enjoy being together doing something we both like. So what I think we have more than anything else is a hobby that just happens to pay us a bit of money.
• If we wanted, we could make a lot more. My son could quit playing and we could stop doing volunteer games. This would give us more time to ref paid games and likely make $75 or more every weekend. Then we could add tournaments to the mix and really clear some "big bucks" (relatively speaking.) But we enjoy my son playing as well as helping the community AYSO league by volunteering, so we're not likely to do this. But if I ever found myself out of a job, I could ramp up refereeing and make a decent supplemental income. I have one friend who does this. His hours at work were cut, so he added more refereeing, including high school games, to make up the difference.
• We have all of our equipment as well as our certifications through 2010, so this fall the only regular expenses we'll have will be mileage. I'm sure we'll ref 13 games or so again and should have lower expenses than this spring.

I'll give you all a performance update at the end of the fall season this year. Stay tuned.

Comments

[Doctor S]

Officiating youth sports leagues is a great source of extra cash. I have blogged about it over the last year, but I have made a TONNNNN of cash refereeing hoops. If you ever want to take it a step further, get certified by your state and officiate middle school/high school/catholic school. Its the best second job in the world.

[Rob]

I've thought about learning how to become an umpire for rec baseball leagues in my area as it would probably be a nice source of side income. Anyone have advice for how to go about doing that?

I am not a huge basketball fan and I cannot stand soccer (sorry FMF) so those are out for me. Only baseball.

[DIY Investor]

Interesting. I'm a retired guy and I umpired baseball. In my area no real training class - they provided one meeting where they gave an extensive quiz. They provided all the equipment etc. I made $30/game and it was great fun. I would usually do 1 game during the week and a couple of games on the weekend. When I was a young man I played catcher so I know the game.
I loved doing a game and then pulling up to the gas tank knowing I had just paid for a weeks or more worth of gas.
Basketball referring is another story. It's a fast game and the parents can get a bit overbearing, even with the really young kids. I know because my daughter referred in high school to make a couple of extra bucks.
Soccer always seemed to me to be a situation where I had to put up a lot for uniform and certification before I got any return. The good thing is that it is a respectable sport.

[Old Limey]

The biggest gain of all is that you are building a great father/son relationship that is good for both of you and that will reap rewards in many ways throughout your relationship. Even though I never played baseball I was an assistant coach on my son's little league teams until he moved up to the Majors. I also used to go out to the park with him many evenings after work and help sharpen up his batting and fielding skills. When he later played Pop Warner football, I took a job on the board, worked at fund raising Bingo games, and often worked on the chain gang during games. I think I got as much pleasure vicariously just being at his games as he did playing, and sports was really good for him in a lot of ways. He soon learned that when the head coach yells "Jump" your answer has to be "How high" or you end doing lots of laps or push-ups.

[Rich A.]

FMF, you could save your ref-ing income over the next four years to help pay your way to the World Cup in Brazil in 2014! ;)

[Budgeting in the Fun Stuff]

My husband loves officiating (high school football and basketball)...it's nice to know he's not alone. Congrats on finding a hobby that pays money and gets you some exercise!

[Frances]

As a referee, you also might have been keeping close watch at upcoming soccer games of teams you are about to encounter so as to have a quick view of the play.