Whatever problem the Kansas University athletic department has with a bill it received from the Lawrence Holidome, it has nothing to do with the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce or Downtown Lawrence Inc.

Asking the two community groups – in an e-mail, no less – to take the athletic department off the hook for $6,400 it reportedly owes the Holidome for a canceled basketball banquet is both arrogant and unfair.

The athletic department’s rationale apparently is that it canceled the intimate banquet for players and select donors in favor of a parade and public celebration at Allen Fieldhouse. While it’s true that the downtown and chamber groups supported having a parade to honor the championship basketball team, it was the athletic department’s decision to allow the parade and to tack on the fieldhouse celebration.

And, although neither event would seem to conflict with having a more exclusive basketball banquet, the decision to cancel that event also was made by the athletic department, not the community groups. Their names weren’t on the contract with the Holidome. They didn’t plan the banquet and they didn’t cancel it.

The attempt to pass this bill along only feeds the money-driven image of KU athletics. A $6,400 bill is a drop in the bucket compared to what the KU athletic department spent on travel, salaries and other expenses for the tournament, but it would be a major expense for the chamber or Downtown Lawrence. Is the athletic department’s attempt to stick those groups with this bill a way of expressing lingering anger at the community for pressing for a parade to celebrate the Jayhawk victory?

Any way you look at it, trying to pass this bill along reeks of pettiness. The Holidome bill is the athletic department’s responsibility. If department officials were unaware that the cancellation would cost them $6,400, that was their mistake, a mistake for which they – not the chamber or Downtown Lawrence – should pay.