PRO: Experienced assistant referees Chris Strickland and Sean Hurd are two of six officials to formally announce their retirements from PRO following the conclusion of the 2016 season alongside James Conlee, Mathieu Bourdeau, Jaime Herrera and Tyler Ploeger. (Herrera had previously announced, and Conlee is joining PRO's growing coaching/development team) http://www.proreferees.com/news--five-officials-formally-announce-their-retirements.php
Feel bad for the 4th official Ploeger. Never got to do a single middle. I don't know if it was a retirement on his part or he just got the message they were done with him as a 4th. I don't think he had many assignments this year.
If it was him "just getting the message", then there are probably a few others that should read that message as well.
Look at the URL - looks like they originally posted as 5 and then added somebody. Either they didn't count Herrera at first since he was announced a few months ago http://www.proreferees.com/news--referee-jaime-herrera-hangs-up-his-whistle.php Or someone was added in and they only updated part of the article
Any idea when PRO will announce the roster for the upcoming season? With 6 officials leaving (3 ARs and 3 4Os) they will have lots of spots to fill. And with 2 teams added to the league, that means 1 more game per week as compared to last season.
Last year it was announced on Feb. 23rd. I believe they inform the promoted of their changes at the pre-season camp in Arizona which coincides with an MLS pre-season event that takes place there as well.
There is only one formal addition for 2017: Nick Uranga at AR. There will still be spots for trial CRs and ARs, like there have been recently. But only Uranga officially joins the PRO roster for the start of 2017. With more expansion coming, some of the 4ths are going to have to be groomed quickly. And with more retirements coming, the next crop of ARs needs to be big, so pay attention to which ARs start traveling a lot in USL to get a hint there.
I'm a little surprised that they didn't add anybody to the roster as a 4O, since 3 dropped off after last year. Another round of expansion, although only 2 teams, means one extra game per week. More games means more officials working each week. And that trickles down to lower levels as well. USL is expanding like crazy.
Herrera, Ploeger and Bourdeau did a total of how many games last year? Unless Herrera did way more than I remember, I think the total is in single digits. Insofar as workload goes, I think there is plenty of capacity to handle the games with the number of fourth officials on the roster and the retirements really didn't affect things. As an aside, note that Dan Fitzgerald is also no longer on the list after not doing games last year, even though his "retirement" wasn't announced. Anyway, I think the AR position is the bigger concern regarding workload. Several retirees with several more clearly reaching their final years. And they only added one AR even though you have two more clubs this year and two more possible in the immediate aftermath.
I definitely agree that the lack of roster expansion is pretty surprising. 2 more teams means 34 additional regular season games this year, all fit into the same relative amount of time as before. Basically, it all averages out to needing, on average, 1 additional full crew every week of the season.
Uranga's a good kid, solid on the touchline. I expect to see big things from him, and rapid advancement into a FIFA badge.
It was pretty obvious that Uranga was on the radar. He worked the NWSL final and the USL final last year. Just a little surprised that nobody else was added to the roster. I guess that means more games for everybody else. Or, like someone else said, more spots for referees outside of PRO to be given a chance.