Well, ideally there would be more than company that provides refs, so we would have competition for the best officiating.
And you wouldn't need to train a whole bunch of new refs. If refs that are employed by the college and professional leagues were all fired b/c their services were no longer needed, where do you suppose they would get jobs?
. . . and once they had jobs at professional referee companies, only those who perform the best would get advancement and gigs.
As I already indicated, college and professional leagues would hire them out by the revenue generated by ticket sales and merchandising.
.. . . and once refs are a respected field? These companies might even be able to get into the endorsements and taking ads game.
If i knew of every scheme to generate revenue for such a company? I suppose I would be in the business of starting companies.
But of this, you can be sure. If it were against the law, or socially and publicly a bad thing that refs on the payroll of the same folks that run the games? Eventually, where there is a need? It gets filled.
That's how the free market works.
. . . likewise, we could take away the cartel status, but clearly cities that generate more revenue would continually dominate.