Inbox — Jan. 23, 2013

NBA is Superior
The Dec. 12 column from Joe Manning was off the mark. He is asking us to continue to buy in financially and emotionally to the hopelessly corrupt and greedy system known as the NCAA/BCS that destroys the integrity of our institutions of higher learning. Our community would be much better served if U of L spent $10 million toward the goal of achieving 55,000 college degrees than voluntarily sending the ransom (exit fees) to Rhode Island. This is based on the presumption that the university was created to educate instead of providing professional entertainment.

Even the most ardent college sports fan will have to admit that Division I basketball and football programs are professional sports. Since we already have one professional basketball team in Louisville, Manning should be asking if we are in the right league. The NBA offers a superior product. Manning cannot deny that the athleticism of NBA players is superior to the talents of players playing in the NCAA. An investigation conducted two years ago by The Courier-Journal showed that by the time you added the cost of ticket prices plus the required donations to the Louisville Athletic Association, Indiana Pacers tickets were considerably less expensive than U of L tickets. With the NBA, you get 41 home games compared to 16 for U of L. There is an old joke about a lady complaining about how bad the food is at a restaurant, and her friend says, “I agree, and the portions are so small.” Why would a rational consumer pay more to get less of an inferior product? Objectively, would you rather pay less money to see likes of a Kobe, Lebron, Rondo and Kevin Durant rather than more money to see teams from the Little Sisters of the Poor? With the best talent leaving college early, you also get to see the more talented players for a much longer time in the NBA.

U of L cannot be blamed for wanting to maintain its monopoly on basketball in this city, but there is no logical reason why the citizens of this community should reject a superior product at a lower price. Instead of asking its supporters to pay higher prices, the competition would force U of L to reduce their prices. By blocking an NBA team in Louisville, the supporters of college athletics are literally begging the university to continue to price gouge on tickets.
Tom Ridge, Camp Taylor

Bistro is not L&N
I must say I was totally confused about which restaurant was being reviewed by Robin Garr in the Jan. 9 LEO Weekly. The first three paragraphs were about a restaurant that doesn’t even exist any longer (L&N Wine Bar). It’s a real disservice to a local business by slighting businessmen who took a defunct location and turned it into a contributing member of the community again (Bistro 1860). What would you think if someone wrote about your magazine, but the first three pages were about a defunct publication that had nothing to do with your business, but a shared location at one point in time?

Please be a community booster as you have been, and maybe lament the closing of a business in a different column.
Amy Simmons, Jeffersonville

Shame on Rand Paul
Thank you, President Obama, for taking the lead in restoring sanity to gun regulations. After the tragedy of Newtown, Sen. Rand Paul dishonors Democracy and our commonwealth with his political grandstanding.

Kentucky’s Sen. Paul must stop using the Second Amendment as window dressing for his own fascist ideology that defies democracy. Sen. Paul — not President Obama — proclaims defiance like a divine-right king. President Obama’s gun-control actions represent the will of the American people. A huge percentage of our citizens want common-sense gun restrictions.
Michael Gregoire, St. Matthews