Is this happening most weekends in Adelaide?

lift the pay - school comps paying far more per game plus what are Domestic comps paying ? District is supposed to be the Rolls Royce.

Get paid more to ref school and social comps who surprise surprise don't have to many issues with ref availability.

If an NBL1 referee was to referee a junior division 1 game on a Friday night they would get $25 per game. And about that as a referee coach
That's a top referee on a FRIDAY night
It’s no wonder no one wants to be out there in the middle of winter potentially getting abused

must compete within reason of what other comps are offering as payment per game and per qualification

Not the same as 20 years ago .Was in attendance at Pasadena a few weeks back
Old days
Good uic committed to getting refs and getting looked after ,less abuse .
Referee coaches in attendance
Referee got training.
Always two refs

Nowadays
UIC not committed ,on their phones not watching games or in office doing nothing.
No ref coaches around
Refs don't get coaching by uic
UIC disappear when late game started ,so not keen to hear complaints.
All night one ref per court .

A parent said email from BSA saying that we are short of refs due to injury or sickness.
Refs make excuses not to attend because of high abuse and uic not protecting their refs .

Bottom line this parent said by end of year there be no refs to do games.

Basketball Sa need get their head out of the sand and start a plan ,you want a happy competition,then start now or it’s too late .

lot more opportunities for refs now, they can pick and choose where they ref - yes, 20 years ago at most stadiums you could get what you mention - now a lot of younger refs with less life / people management experience - many years ago a lot more older and worldlier senior staff

and yet BSA are spruiking 2 new appointments...ridiculous.

Two female Participation Strategy diversity and inclusion officers.

So plenty of coin in the coffers for 'optics' and no money for asset management or Referee recruitment.

(Mod: Removed at request of author.)

Phantom others gave fair suggestions that the referees aren't getting paid enough in district.

"If you want to point the finger (which negative/unsuccessful people do) maybe point it at past snr management that ran BSA and the refereeing stock into the ground over the past 8-9 years."

You realise you are pointing the finger? So is that saying you are a negative/unsuccessful person?

I was having a discussion with someone, how does basketball explode in popularity in the last 10 years but the umpire pool has diminished? My answer would be pay, who wants to work nights for 3-4 hours with no break, just running for less than $20 per hour? This is 1990s-level pay.

This feed has other people from other states on it, why is this seemingly just an SA issue? Why aren't other states having their CEO posting on social media and forums like this saying "We are sort refs and need people to step up"?
Surely refs in other states get abused, and indeed they also get sick and have school/uni/whatever.

This seems like an SA issue and I would bet it comes down to income for effort and services rendered.

I bet if you paid 50 bucks a game per ref you would see people coming out of the woodwork to ref.... so the question is, what is the pay that keeps refs around but also keeps the "business" profitable?

got to have the personnel to make the business run. District is the highest level - yet refs get more pay doing school games - agree that payments need an upgrade. These costs will only get passed on though.

Based on this forum I would say 100% because of abuse of refs. Other states don't allow coaches and players talk to refs u12 and u14 and are really strict for the older age groups.

Why would you ref to get abused? How can pay be the answer. Would you take a pay rise if your boss could yell at you more, and remember most refs are just kids.

agree - so it has to be more attractive in several areas - respect and appreciation as well.

As someone who's recently gotten out of basketball (finished juniors in 2021) I’d love to ref but just don’t see the point with how little you get paid relative to the abuse you deal with. Currently coaching school basketball and getting great money to deal with much more pleasant people than angry district parents/coaches.

I was at Port Adelaide the other week watching my daughter.
There was an NBL1 referee come out for 1 game. He was doing a solo to make sure that the game didn't get cancelled.
Under 18 girls division 2.
Within the first quarter he was being abused by a North parent.

So he stopped the game, pointed to the person and said to the coach "that spectator there is breaching the code of conduct".

The coach acted like an idiot, and got a technical foul.

I applaud this referee.
Not only did he not take the abuse, but pointed it out.

We need more people to call out this abuse, otherwise it won't stop

DennyCrane

I am out of the game and Adelaide now. Played and coached juniors, reffed juniors, social and school knockout.

Well done to that NBL1 ref.

It's just really stupid to allow kids to learn disrespect and self-centredness above teamwork, fair play and societal responsibility (I have 26 years in teaching too).

I would like to think that the school comps foster better behaviour because teachers are involved. We think of the development of kids into adults able to contribute to society, and want them all to learn and succeed.

Sometimes parents and ex players get involved in club sport to live out their own ambitions through kids. U18 DivII basketball game- who will care about the win or loss of a single game next year, let alone in 10 years when all the players have moved on to meaningful adult lives?

All sport can teach valuable life lessons. If parents or coaches are just teaching self-entitlement and abuse of others (refs, opponents) they’re doing a great disservice to those kids and really need to reevaluate their own actions and choices.

I’ve seen kids I’ve taught and coached at school play in community comps (the kids asked me to see them). I actually had a quiet word with one kid at half time as the coach did nothing. He apologised to me for his behaviour, so I told him to be better the second half, and apologise to the ref after the game. He did so, and played a better second half. That was really the coach’s job though, not mine (I don’t like to pretend I’m in charge when it’s not work or coaching I’m doing).

I always try to impress upon kids that it’s early unlikely they’ll ever turn pro, but their attitude, behaviour and teamwork at sport can help them into a job with a club sponsor or associate (this is particularly with rugby league kids). It’s true as well, I’ve known plenty of kids who’ve gone on to play senior sport at local levels who’ve leveraged their sporting "careers" into apprenticeships or other work.

What would that kid do if they showed up for a job interview and saw a ref they’ve abused or someone else who has seen them carry on in a junior game? Kids have trouble seeing the longer term ramifications of their short term decisions- it’s just another thing they can learn from sport.

Rant over.

I haven't been on here in a while so I came back to read some more.
To Pinch, I am a coach, whenever I go away to Melbourne for the aus day carnival or the nunawadding carnival. I find the umpires are more willing to communicate than SA umpires.

On many occasions, in Victoria, I have had umpires come to me PRE GAME and say "Hey I'm ABC ill be your ref, just introducing myself, if you have any issues no need to go crazy, tell me you want to talk and next dead ball I will talk"

I follow through, and always end up with pleasant conversations with refs, hard to be mad when they are willing to talk to you about what is happening and what they saw. You can disagree all you want as a coach but with these approaches by the refs in the way above, you really lose a lot of the "anger power".

on the other hand, I recently coached a game down south, umpire on our game was very experienced, have had him many times before. during the game, I thought a call was missed, I tried to say to him "Hey next dead ball can we talk about it" (thinking if I approach it the way the umpires in other states do I might get a more positive outcome/discussion) he immediately gave me a tech warning for abuse. I didn't yell, didn't step on court, I waited until he was in line with me to approach the conversation.

If I am a jnr ref, I see a snr ref act this way, I'm going to do the same. This puts pressure on the ref/coach relationship, parents see this and think "Hey they are out to get us" which then puts pressure on the ref/spectator relationship.

Refs need to be reminded that they can work WITH coaches to improve the quality of the game and quality of outcomes... now of course we are always going to have idiots, it's in every walk of life. Let's teach these umpires how to have constructive conversations with coaches... even more, let's teach umpires to be proactive in disarming coaches by approaching and saying what the above umpires in other states do.

For the idiots, and spectators who are abusive, yea let's dictate that behaviour out the door. If spectators see a good umpire/player, umpire/coach relationship I bet money that abuse will drop.

I WOULD LOVE to host some form of event for coaches and umpires, to meet each other as HUMANS first and then teach open communication in "stressful" environments.

Lets start with Payrises first, then lets teach how to handle idiot coaches and spectators.

Then you should contact BSA and start that ball rolling

Grote, that interaction with the referee can go both ways.

I always had my U16 and U18 teams shake hands/fist bump the refs before and after the game. I would always introduce myself before games, always asking what the point of emphasis was, so we weren't spending the first quarter trying to adjust. I would say it assisted me not getting t'd up in my last 10 years coaching.

To Sebastian, I followed your advice and this week tried to contact BSA on multiple occasions. I left 5 voicemail on 5 days, with no call back.

Granted I'm an outside offering free assistance, I might be seen as "not worthy" of providing assistance.

But I do think if BSA aren't willing to accept outside advice, they should advise how they are improving the problem.
What is the plan, KPIs targets, when are those targets estimated, are we on track for them. Stakeholders deserve some form of clear communication.

Grote 12 - Did you call up to give them advice or offer assistance?

Both.
I doubt that matters if there is no phone pick-up on any days I call.
It seems like BSA didn't have anyone answering calls all week.
maybe its not just umpires they are short on, but staff to?