Council faces feud over youth football

Erin

Thursday, Dec. 21, 2000 | 10:07 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council will have to huddle again in two weeks to decide how to deal with two different youth football organizations seeking space at a planned city complex.

Two weeks ago representatives of the Nevada Youth Football League angrily asked the council why they had not been included in negotiations for a building at 1651 S. Buffalo Drive near the city's planned Buffalo Park.

At that time the council agreed to give Nevada Youth Football the same shake as the Southern Nevada Pop Warner Football Conference. But on Wednesday, Councilman Michael McDonald said that doing so would lead to "the demolition of our youth."

Discussion during Wednesday's City Council meeting included McDonald's disclosure that he had once served on the Pop Warner board of directors and still sponsors youth football teams.

McDonald asked his colleagues to strike the item, thus killing any chance for Nevada Youth Football to negotiate with the city. Councilman Larry Brown, however, asked to simply hold the item for two weeks to allow representatives of Nevada Youth Football to defend themselves against allegations made by McDonald and Pop Warner's vice president, John Lybbert.

Lybbert said Pop Warner cannot co-locate with another football organization for liability and space reasons. The property includes three structures, a house, an attached living quarters and a separate garage.

McDonald said one of those other buildings was touted for possible use as a satellite office for the city marshals.

"I didn't want this to turn ugly," McDonald said, as he withdrew his motion to strike the item. "The only people who are going to suffer are the children."