While many local officials are simply voicing concerns about moving the Kansas-Missouri football game to Kansas City, some local business owners have decided to so something about it.

Jerry and Sue Neverve, owners of the downtown Red Lyon Tavern, started spreading the word a couple of weeks ago about an effort to counteract the expected loss of business spurred by moving the game to Arrowhead Stadium. One idea they offered was for Lawrence restaurant and retail businesses to offer special discounts to people who present an unused tickets to the Nov. 24 game.

Sue Neverve said this week that reaction to their idea had been mixed. A number of businesses have indicated they will plan some kind of special event such as a tailgate party to watch the game, she said, but it’s difficult to start planning the details until the exact time of the game is announced by Kansas University officials.

The effort is aimed at combining business promotions with a protest of the KU athletic department’s decision to move a KU “home” game and all the revenue it generates to Kansas City, Mo. That revenue is no small issue. Moving the game on the Thanksgiving shopping weekend and replacing it with a nonconference game earlier in the season, will cost Kansas, Douglas County and the city of Lawrence about $713,000 in retail sales and tax revenue, according to an economist hired by the Journal-World to analyze the situation.

However, not all of the feedback the Neverves have received has been positive. The comments that bother Sue Neverve the most are people who say that she and her husband are urging people not to support the KU team. On the contrary, the couple are donors to the athletic department’s Williams Fund and still want people to support the team and watch the game on TV. The protest, she said, is aimed only at the relocation of the game.

It’s also ironic that people are assigning mercenary motives to businesses that are protesting the move. It seems that motive would be more aptly applied to KU athletic department officials who have been candid in saying that their main reason for moving the game is the $1 million in revenues the department has been guaranteed for each of the next two years.

The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and Lawrence city commissioners have expressed displeasure about the move. Downtown Lawrence Inc. has been largely silent on the issue and specifically declined to participate in the Neverves’ plan.

It’s refreshing to see the local couple step up with a positive response to this situation. Their effort seems like a creative way to send a message to KU athletic department officials about how to support both the Jayhawks and the local business community.