Equality urged in youth league dealings

Erin Neff

Thursday, Jan. 4, 2001 | 10:36 a.m.

Hours before the Orange Bowl began to help determine a national collegiate football champion, the Las Vegas City Council moved to end its own disputed rankings of local football organizations.

Two weeks ago Councilman Michael McDonald likened a simple lease negotiation agreement with one football league to "the demolition of our youth."

Obviously angered by McDonald's manipulation of a building near the site of a planned football complex in his ward, the council on Wednesday took the issue out of his hands.

Councilman Larry Brown recommended that the council should negotiate with the Nevada Youth Football League for use of office space. The Southern Nevada Pop Warner Football Conference, which had been working with McDonald for the space, has already been negotiating with the city for the site at 1651 S. Buffalo Drive, immediately adjacent to a planned football complex with five lighted and two unlit fields.

McDonald, a former board member of the Nevada Youth Football League, argued two weeks ago that the two organizations could not share the same building due to liability and other unnamed financial concerns.

Brown put those issues to rest Wednesday, saying simply that the two organizations should have equal opportunity to negotiate leases with the city.

Brown also said he thought all of the city's football fields, including three at Ed Fountain Park, should be programmed on an equitable basis. That would prohibit any particular league from laying claim to a particular city field.

McDonald said he turned the item over to Brown to handle because he was out of town.