Rainouts, reschedules and game changes: keeping officials informed

Each kind asks something different of the officials, so name which one you are dealing with before you send anything.

• Time moved, same day. 10am becomes 1pm. Officials who accepted the 10am game may have something else at 1pm, or another game.
• Venue or field moved. Same time, different place. Easy to miss in a message, and a different complex can be forty minutes away.
• Postponed, no new date yet. The game is off for now and will be played later. Officials need to know it is off, and that they will be asked again.
• Cancelled outright.The game won’t be played. The officials need to know they are free.
• Called or suspended mid-game. Weather or a field problem stops play after the start. Nobody needs a message on the day, but the game raises a pay question and may come back as a resumed or replayed game.

The assignor usually doesn’t decide whether a game goes ahead. Depending on your setup, the decision belongs to:

• The field owner. A city parks department or a school closes a field, and the league finds out.
• The league or competition. It decides postponements, new dates and whether a weekend is called off.
• The home club, in leagues where the home team owns the decision for its own field.
• The officials on the day, for stopping play once the game has started, under your competition’s rules.

Set up a short information chain: one named person who tells you when a game changes, in writing, with the new details. If three coaches text you three versions, you end up deciding which one is official. Agree before the season that you act on word from that person and nobody else.

A call time is the latest point at which a game will be called off without people traveling. Decide three things and publish them:

• When. For example, by 7am for morning games and by noon for afternoon and evening games. After the call time, everyone travels and the decision is made at the field.
• Who. The person from the information chain above, with a named backup for weekends they are away.
• Where it is announced.The league’s website, an email list or a team managers’ group for teams and families. Officials hear from the assignor directly.

The call time also anchors the rainout pay policy below. An official who hears before it stays home; one who hears after it has already driven to the field.

1. 1. Get the decision and the new details

   Which games, what happens to each (moved, postponed, cancelled) and, for a moved game, the new time and venue. Don’t message officials about “probably 1pm”.

2. 2. Change the schedule first

   Update the game in your schedule before you send a message. If an official calls back with a question, the schedule should already say what you told them.

3. 3. Tell the officials who were told about the game

   Everyone who was sent the game and still holds it: those who accepted and those who haven’t replied yet. An official you had only penciled in, and never actually sent the game to, has nothing to undo. They need no change notice: send them the game as it now stands when you send the rest.

4. 4. Treat a moved game as a new request

   Someone who said yes to 10am hasn’t said yes to 1pm. Ask each official to confirm the new time or venue by a deadline, rather than assuming the original acceptance carries over.

5. 5. Reassign whoever can’t make it

   Record the decline, open the position and fill it the same way you would any other. The cancellation process covers finding a replacement at short notice.

6. 6. Call anyone who hasn’t replied

   After the reply-by time, phone them. An official who missed the message will drive to the old field at the old time.

• The game, the way the official knows it: teams, division, their position.
• What it was and what it is now, on separate lines, so an official reading on a phone can’t mistake the old time for the new one.
• What they need to do. Nothing, for a cancellation. Confirm, for a moved game.
• A reply-by time, if you need an answer.

Riverside Youth Soccer: game MOVED
U12 Girls, Harborside FC v Millbrook United. You: AR1
Was: Sat 10:00 AM, Harborside Complex Field 1
Now: Sat 1:00 PM, Millbrook Park North
Can you still make it? Reply YES or NO by 6 PM Friday.

The message templates have email and text versions for a moved game and a rainout.

Whether an official gets paid for a game that didn’t happen is a policy question, and it is easier to settle in August than at the field. Common options, which leagues often combine:

• Called before the call time: no fee. Nobody traveled.
• Called at the field, before the start: a show-up fee, a fixed part of the game fee, or the full fee.
• Started, then called: the full fee, or the full fee only once the game reaches a set point, such as halftime or a set number of innings.
• Resumed later: decide whether the resumed game is a new fee and who gets it if the crew changes.

Publish the policy with your fee schedule and apply it the same way every time. On a pay sheet, the rained-out game stays as a row with its status and the amount the policy says is due, even when that is zero, so a query months later has an answer. The guide to paying referees has a pay sheet with a game_status column for this.

When a postponed game gets a new date, offer it to the original crew first. They planned their day around it, and it saves you building a crew from scratch. Give them a deadline. Whoever says no or doesn’t answer by then, open their position to everyone else.

Rescheduled games often land on weeknights or on weekends that are already full, so check the new slot against each official’s other games before you send it. The guide to avoiding double-booking covers what to look for.

Snow, a storm warning or a citywide field closure can take out every game at once. Handle it in batches:

1. 1. Cancel or postpone everything first

   Change every affected game in the schedule, then send the change messages. Don’t try to reschedule in the same pass.

2. 2. Send one overview as well

   An official with three games gets three messages. A short note to your whole pool (“all games this weekend are off; new dates to follow”) makes it obvious none of them is a mistake.

3. 3. Wait for the new dates

   Reassign once the league has published replacement dates, in one batch, original crews first.

A short log answers the questions that come up later about pay and about who knew what:

What it sends

When you change a game’s date, start time or venue, Ref Grid sends every official who was sent the game and still holds it (whether they accepted or haven’t replied) a notice with the old and new details, by text, email or both, depending on how you reach them. Cancelling a game sends the same people a cancellation notice and turns off the response links, so nobody can accept a game that is off. The cancelled game stays on record.

Officials you had only drafted onto the game hear nothing, because they were never told about it. Reminders, if you switch them on, go only to officials who have accepted, and only for games that haven’t been cancelled. Each notice is a separate message, so an official with three games on a washed-out weekend gets three. The games page lists any change or cancellation notice that didn’t reach an official, so you know whom to call.

What stays with you

• Reconfirming a moved game. The notice tells the official what changed. Asking whether the new time still works, and chasing an answer, is up to you.
• Recording a decline.An official who has accepted can’t back out from the link. They contact you, and you record the decline with a reason. That reopens the position and keeps the decline on record.
• Postponements.There is no “postponed” status: a game is scheduled or cancelled. Cancel a game that is off with no new date. You can reopen it later, and its assignments come back as they were: anyone who had accepted still shows as accepted, and will appear in the pay report once the start time passes. Their response links stay off, so confirm the crew with each official directly, and record a decline for anyone who can’t make the new date. As you pick officials for the new slot, Ref Grid warns about anyone who already has an overlapping game or another game that day. It doesn’t know about games they work for other organizations.
• Rainout pay. Cancelled games are left out of the pay report. If your policy pays a show-up fee for a game called at the field, add that payment yourself. A game that started and was then called can stay on the schedule; once its start time has passed it appears in the pay report like any other.
• Telling teams and families. Ref Grid has no team, coach or public schedule view. It doesn’t make weather calls or announce them to anyone but the officials, so the league’s own channel still carries the announcement.