CFL observers want to know why the league won’t follow the lead of the NFL and hire full-time officials.
The CFL can’t afford it. The CFL has 38 part-time, contract employees who typically work one game per week from June to November. They can’t all be paid full-time wages for a part-time job.
NFL officials also work one game per week. Still, the NFL has plans to hire 21-24 fulltime officials, who will be deployed at different positions among the league’s 17 crews in a move to improve the overall performance of the refs. About one-quarter of the NFL’s staff will soon be fulltime. In the CFL that would be 9-10 full-time officials, a major expense for a league that’s not nearly as wealthy as the NFL.
Although the NHL, NBA and MLB have full-time officials, they can work 3, 4 or 6 times weekly. Between their weekly assignments, CFL officials have to have jobs as bankers, lawyers, accountants or labourers, and there’s no way to change that.