For $40.....

Thankfully the spread offense hasn't really hit us locally yet. And no JV games first either. We also have a bunch of games that spend the whole 4th quarter in running time. Most 7 pm games are done by 9 pm, giving us a solid 2-hour window before our press deadline.

 

Same thing a billion years ago when I was a HS student in Connecticut. My alma mater, at least back then, had a freshman team as well as a JV team. I want to say the freshman game was Friday after school at the site of the varsity game b/c I think there was a good amount of freshmen who'd play in the JV game as well. But, again, a billion years ago, so I could be misremembering. [/Clemens]

 

Agree that $40 is low, and I also don't ask my guys to do anything other than send me 12-15 inches and text me occasional scoring updates during...so I'm the exception rather than the rule as an SE. Papers asking for more than that should definitely pay more. BUT...

...the people on here that consider Friday football to be a 7-hour work shift? Holy shit — you're clearly doing it wrong. Especially in the "web-first" era, where your deadline is always five minutes ago. Get to the stadium by 6:45, file within 30 minutes of 0:00. Boom. Not that difficult. Four hours tops, plus whatever your drive was (and your paper should pay you accordingly for said drive).

If your game isn't being decided in the final two minutes, then when the gun sounds your story should almost always only need quotes plugged in. (And if your game ends after 10, I'm not expecting quotes; just ship it.)

 

Those of us who cover from the press box can do that. I can't see how someone walking the sidelines can write on the fly, unless they write on their phone (possible but cumbersome). But you can't get to a game 15 minutes before, either. I like to arrive at least an hour before to check on lineup changes, etc., before the kickoff.

 

Yeah, it's ridiculous to think you can arrive at a game 15 minutes before it starts and get anything accomplished. First of all, some places there's no parking if you don't come 45 minutes to an hour early. Second of all, if you are lucky enough to procure rosters prior to the game, you still have to check with both teams to make sure there are no number changes and name changes. There always are. It is high school. If you're missing a roster, then you need to find a copy and if there are no extra copies, you need to have a good relationship with the athletic director of the home team so you can get a copy of a roster if one needs to be made. And yes, though you made disdain it, if the paper you're stringing for wants you to provide video from the game, then you're on the sidelines and you're not writing during the game.

 

Not to mention at least an hour’s prep time sometime during the week to learn a little something about the teams you’re covering so you don’t go in completely blind. That “four hours, tops” is attending a game, not covering it.

 

If you're taking an hour to research, you're either milking the clock or looking up a bunch of useless information that you are never going to use.

 

Why are you required to stay down on the field for the entire game? Photos early, go up to the press box to write during the 2nd/3rd quarter, go back down to the field if you need more photos or it's a close game.

 

If there is space in the press box. I can't tell you how many times I wrote in a school library or office. Times have changed, but facilities haven't overall.

Even on your four-hour day, that barely equals $10 an hour. That's if everything goes perfectly. We all well know that doesn't always happen. The only thing that sort of mitigates it is a set deadline, so you have to be done whether perfect or not. Also, as a stringer, I think it is OK to add all the logistics of getting to and from, what you will have available (if I was unfamiliar with a place, and often even if I was, I contacted a school beforehand as a staffer or stringer), getting situated, and so on. Not always a 10-minute process.

 

Less than half of the schools I covered at my former shop had a press box big enough to accommodate the media. Your options were either to have your laptop on your knees in the stands or to walk the sideline.

 

Forty dollars to spend a Friday night working, on deadline, to write a story and photos/videos and maybe social media updates is BS.

Even $75 a game is BS. Unless you show up 15 minutes before kickoff, watch a little, churn out something and scram without much care, you're still not coming out ahead unless you just don't mind working for The Man. Get a few clips, enjoy an evening, whatever. It's happened for years, it'll continue to happen and 10 years from now people will be asking if $40 is too little to pay or get for covering a game.

The low rates and shitty demands and those who say "Hurray! I'll do it!" continue to devalue the profession. We bitch and moan about Ogden and Gannett and Alden and other evil fuckwads who do horrible things, but willfully go along with terrible things like working for peasant pay AND encouraging it as "That's how you do it, kid."

We're talking about $40 to work for at least four hours, if not longer. That's less than minimum wage. Hell, with all factors involved you might be working for $3 or $4 an hour. If you're a professional, don't take shit pay for your experience, time and efforts, unless you just enjoy giving away your experience, time and efforts.

If you hear "But if we don't have you we won't have any coverage," just say no. That's not your problem if they won't pay more. Fuck 'em. At some point this has to change.

(this isn't only a sports industry thing, either; it's pervasive in all phases of the comms industry)

 

When I was an assigning editor (more than 10 years ago, when deadlines were tight but reasonable), high school gamers were $100 for freelancers. My "asks":
-Test file before the game to confirm you will be able to send digitally (no way will there be dictation over the phone on my watch)
-Talk to at least one person from both teams (two sides to every story and all of that)
-Include score by quarters and scoring plays (standard AP agate minus individual and team statistics) with your 300- to 350-word gamer
-You're working (and writing) for my outlet only. No double-dipping (not because I don't want people to make money, but because I don't want to take the chance that something goes haywire and you prioritize some other outlet over mine).