REPLY: Regarding the uniform thing...we went through a similar crisis here in NJ two seasons ago. Some legislation in the state assembly limited the ticket prices for playoffs, lowering the revenue expectations of the state association. When they looked to increase member school dues, schools told them to pound sand. So where did they turn? Of course...all of the registered officials. With a promise of a LARGE sponsorship of the state association, a local distributor of that Michigan-based equipment company cut a deal with the state association to become the sole provider of embroidered logo'ed equipment. Formerly, they just provided patches included with your dues. For football, the logo needed to appear on every shirt and hat. For baseball (you'll love this, AB), embroidered logos needed to be on hats, shirts, jackets, and...get this...ball bags! I'm not kidding. Now, the cost: To embroider any item, it was $12 per item if that item was manufactured by that Michigan company, but $18 if it was manufactured by a competitor. Of course you could always purchase new (Michigan company) equipment with the logo pre-embroidered for a somewhat lesser premium for the embroidery. BTW...I researched and found many providers willing to embroider that many pieces of equipment at about $1.00 to $1.50 per piece. The state said that all of this equipment re-identification needed to be done by a certain date or offenders would not be allowed to work the playoffs. The equipment distributor was set up as the 'sheriff' in this deal. He had lists of all the officials and was to inform the state association of those who were compliant, and those who weren't. I personally had three hats and four shirts that would have required 're-conditioning,' only two of which were manufactured by the 'preferred' vendor. So my embroidery bill would have amounted to $114--and I only do football. The officials went absolutely bonkers. The predominant opinion was that this was simply a non-negotiated dues increase. We simply told them we weren't doing it. Since they have a sole-source contract with our association, who were they going to get to officiate their playoffs? Finally, someone pointed out to the state association that their contract with us called for them to provide the patch as the means off us identifying our affiliation with them. Requiring us to embroider at incremental cost would put them in breach. Crisis averted...except that our contract with them has just expired. I would not be surprised if "Embroider-gate" raises its ugly head again.
