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1,000 Free Parking Spaces on Football Game Day at A-State To Keep Fans Safe

Arkansas State University
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Arkansas State University

Fans who attend Arkansas State Football games will no longer be able to park on Red Wolf Blvd or East Johnson Avenue on game day.  A new parking plan released Thursday will make it a lot safer for fans to attend the games. 

About one-thousand free parking places on campus.  Arkansas State Athletics Director Terry Mohajir thinks that is something to howl about on game day.

“We re-allocated some parking on campus and added those parking spaces in an area that is about a nine-minute walk to the stadium. I think it will make for a more enhanced game-day environment.”

For years, fans who attended football games at A-State parked along Red Wolf and Johnson, which was illegal.  It is also dangerous. City of Jonesboro’s Communications Director Bill Campbell.

“If there are a lot of cars parked along the edge of a highway, people can run out in traffic and get hurt,” says Campbell.  “Unfortunately, this is not a new thing as many universities across the nation are dealing with these kinds of issues.”

Arkansas State University Chancellor Dr. Kelly Damphousse says the university worked with the Arkansas Department of Transportation and the City of Jonesboro to devise the new plan. 

“It’s a good problem to have that we have so many people that want to come to the games, and we want to make sure they are safe.  That is why, we are waving the ten dollar parking fee for two of those lots so we can make sure everyone has a great time and no one gets hurt.  We also hope waving the ten-dollar parking fee will remove any barriers for people who want to come.”

According to a new campus map of parking released by the university, the free parking will be on the east lots near Sorority Row, byTomlinson Stadium, and near the Village Apartments.  Damphousse says the amount of free parking that will be made available will rival many other places in the nation.  Mohajir says the parking will allow for a great game day atmosphere and will allow for additional areas to tailgate:

Officials will start placing No Parking signs along Red Wolf Blvd and East Johnson Avenue Monday.  The new parking plan will be in place for next Saturday’s homecoming game.  The kickoff is at two p.m. 

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.