The NFHS broke its survey information down in two ways: by sport and by years of experience. It’s interesting to note that there was very little deviation between the top reasons listed for officials regardless of what sport they had officiated.
Career and job demands placed as the number-one reason listed regardless of which sport the respondent had previously worked. There was a slight deviation with baseball umpires, who listed low game fees as their number-two reason for getting out of umpiring. Respondents in no other sport listed it any higher than fourth. Volleyball officials, too, deviated slightly from the norm, listing amount of travel involved as the third-highest reason for getting out.
There was much more deviation based on years of experience. Respondents were divided by the number of years they had previously officiated in a sport, ranging from less than a single year of experience to 26 or more years of experience. Again, the reasons varied only slightly from year to year, but those differences slowly built up the longer the respondent had officiated. Finally, when you look at the top reasons officials with less than a year’s worth of experience leave versus veteran officials who worked more than 26 years, you can see some startling differences. In the accompanying graphs, the top four reasons in each case are listed.
Career and job demands still placed high for both groups (number one for those with less than year in, number three for the 26-year veterans). But money was a key factor for the new officials. Costs associated with obtaining and maintaining a license and with purchasing necessary equipment (listed as the number two and three reasons) apparently drove many first-year officials out of the avocation. Meanwhile, it’s no surprise that voluntary retirement and personal health reasons were first- and second-most listed reasons among the 26-year plus officials.
Reasons involving poor sportsmanship didn’t start creeping into the top five until you look at respondents with one to two years of experience, and it remained a mainstay in the top five for every experience level after that.