Football Association

Matt Leinart’s flag football league avoided paying $50, 000 in rental fees for public fields this past spring by registering as a non-profit, an Orange County Register investigation has found, and will do so again next year. The big problem here is that the league is very much for-profit.

It’s a little involved, and you should definitely read the Register story, but here’s how it works: The Matt Leinart Flag Football League saved money on field fees, and gained permits for other fields that aren’t supposed to be provided to for-profit organizations at all, by registering with local government agencies and school districts as a non-profit. The league cited the non-profit Matt Leinart Foundation in its applications, but the Foundation has absolutely zero to do with the flag football league.

Even after [Matt’s brother] Ryan Leinart told the Register that the Huntington Beach-based youth flag football league was not part of the non-profit foundation, Robert Leinart, Ryan and Matt’s father, wrote a letter to the Costa Mesa City Council requesting the league continue to be granted status otherwise only available to non-profit groups under city regulations.

The Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission decided last week to recommend the flag football league be granted a one-year extension. The commission is expected to approve the recommendation Thursday.

Former Costa Mesa (Calif.) Parks and Recreation director Robert Knapp said that he protested the use of the city’s fields by the for-profit league, against city regulations, but felt so much pressure from city officials that he resigned.

This is legitimate money we’re talking about here. The Register got hold of the contracts the league signed with the city, did the math and determined that “between the two rental agreements, the Leinart league paid $49, 648 less in rental fees than it would have if it had been required to pay the regular for-profit rate.”