Frequently asked questions

No. UmpCrew works for any baseball or softball league with a commissioner — city leagues, adult rec, men's and women's amateur, school district, summer travel, church, youth. The size and audience don't matter; what matters is that there are crews to schedule and umps to notify.

About 15 minutes. Create your league, drop in a CSV of your season schedule, add your umps with their phone numbers, and you can start assigning. CSV import handles most fields automatically.

No. You can start the 14-day free trial without entering any payment details — sign up, import your schedule, send your first SMS, see if it fits. About 3 days before the trial ends, we'll email you a reminder. If you add a card by day 14, your league transitions to a paid plan; if not, your league goes read-only until you decide. No surprise charges either way.

Your league pauses into read-only mode — you (and your umps) can still see existing schedules and assignments, but you can't assign new games, send new SMS reminders, or import new schedules until a payment method is added. Reactivate any time by adding a card; everything resumes immediately. We never auto-charge a card we don't have.

Everything. Full SMS sending, the mobile app for umps, CSV import, fairness dashboard. The trial is the real product, not a stripped-down version.

Yes — most tools can export schedules to CSV, and UmpCrew's import dialog handles common column headers automatically. Total migration time is 20–30 minutes for a typical league. See our detailed comparisons: vs Assignr, vs HorizonWebRef, vs Notch.

Yes. Cancelling sets your league to read-only — you can still see your data and reactivate any time. We don't delete a league's data unless you explicitly ask.

Yes. UmpCrew accepts a CSV with date, time, field, home team, and away team columns. Most league management tools (GameChanger, LeagueApps, TeamSnap, SportsEngine) can export to CSV. There's a sample file in the import dialog you can use as a template. More on CSV import →

Open the auto-suggest panel and UmpCrew picks crews for selected games using a fairness algorithm — it ranks umps by who has worked the fewest games, respects blackout dates, avoids same-day double-booking, and fills the plate role first. You see the proposal and approve or tweak before anything is sent. More on fairness →

Not at the moment — message format is standardized so umps know what to expect from every league using UmpCrew. Custom message templates are on the roadmap.

Yes. Add admins by email from the Admins page. Each admin can assign games, send notifications, edit settings, and add other admins.

They can still receive SMS reminders on any cell phone — the texts include all game details. The mobile app and self-claim features need a smartphone, but they're optional. You can manage everything for them from the admin side.

Yes. Add as many parks as your league uses, each with its own list of fields. Games reference a park + field pair, so SMS reminders and the landing page show the right address and directions. Multi-park is most useful on the League Pro tier (up to 150 umpires).

Yes — UmpCrew is on both the App Store and Google Play. Umps see their assignments, claim open slots, mark blackout dates, and add games to their phone calendar with one tap. Free for umps.

No. Umps use the app for free. Only the league commissioner pays.

Email + password, Sign in with Apple, or Sign in with Google. On first sign-in, UmpCrew matches the umpire to their league roster by email, so as soon as they sign in they see their assignments. (If an ump's email on the roster doesn't match what they signed in with, the commissioner can fix it from the Roster page.)

Yes. The same Apple/Google/email account can be on multiple leagues' rosters. The mobile app shows a league picker on launch when you're on more than one.

Days an ump tells the system they aren't available. Auto-suggest skips them; admins see them when manually assigning. Umps mark blackouts from the mobile app or web view.

If the commissioner enables self-claim for the league, umps see open slots in the mobile app and can take them. Otherwise the admin assigns directly.

When you assign an ump, they get a text immediately with the date, time, field, teams, and a single short link. The link opens a landing page with Add-to-Calendar (Google + Apple/Outlook) and Directions. A configurable reminder (default 24 hours before) goes out automatically. More on SMS reminders →

Yes. STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, and QUIT all opt the ump out of further messages. Reply START to resume. HELP returns contact info. This is required by US carrier rules and works automatically through our SMS provider.

A real US long-code phone number, not a short code. That means messages look like they're from a normal person, not a marketing blast — which is exactly why carriers don't filter them.

Standard message and data rates from their carrier may apply, just like any text. Most modern plans include unlimited texting.

$149 per year for League (up to 50 umpires) or $299 per year for League Pro (up to 150). Annual only — no per-game or per-text fees. Full pricing details →

Leagues are seasonal. Monthly billing would let commissioners pay for two months, blast out the season schedule, then cancel — leaving umps mid-season with no reminders. Annual matches the season and keeps prices low for everyone.

From your billing settings — one click, no email required. Your league stays active through the end of the year you've already paid for, then goes read-only.

The 14-day free trial is your chance to evaluate UmpCrew before paying. Once on a paid plan, past charges are non-refundable — but you can cancel any time and won't be billed for the next period.

On Google Cloud (Firebase) in US data centers, encrypted at rest and in transit. Only signed-in members of your league can see league data; admins can see everything in the league, umps see only their own assignments.

No. Phone numbers and email addresses are used only to operate UmpCrew — assignments, reminders, account security. We don't sell data, don't share it for marketing, and don't pass it to third parties beyond the infrastructure providers we need (Google Cloud for hosting, Twilio for SMS).

Yes. League settings has a danger-zone "Delete this league" button with a type-to-confirm — it permanently removes the league, its games, ump roster, and notification history. Umpires can delete their own account from the mobile app's Profile tab. Full deletion instructions →