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Pack Pride Weekends Brings Fans, Dollars to Downtown Jonesboro

  

Credit Arkansas State University

With the football season comes Pack Pride Weekends.  The weekends are a partnership between Arkansas State University and the Downtown Jonesboro Association.  Alumni, fans, students, the A-State bands, the A-State cheerleaders and dance teams, and the mascots, Howl and Scarlet, make their way to downtown for pre-game festivities and activities and events take place on Jonesboro the entire weekend.  Normally, a huge pep rally takes place on Friday night, the Red Wolf Express and JETS will take fans to the games and back on Saturdays and there are specials the entire weekend.  Executive Director of the Downtown Jonesboro Association Hailey Knight says Pack Pride Weekends have been taking place since 2014, and she says there is a positive economic impact for downtown Jonesboro as a result of Pack Pride Weekends.

"We have noticed that the sales tax numbers go up every year as a result of this," said Knight.  "This has really helped the merchants and adds to the overall atmosphere of downtown and it is now a signature event."

She says the Jonesboro Economical Transit System will use their buses, including the Red Wolf Express, to shuttle people to and from the game.  She says JETS has seen a ridership increase as a result of Pack Pride Weekends.

"People like the fact that they can park in one of our over 700 free downtown parking spaces and take the Red Wolf Express to the game and back.  We are now adding a halftime route and we expect many more users.  The numbers doubled for JETS last year during Pack Pride Weekend and we expect it to grow more this year."

Knight says that many alumni from out of town and out of state come back to Downtown Jonesboro and they have noticed how Downtown Jonesboro has been revitalized over the years. Knight says Pack Pride Weekends are one of the many signature events that are used to showcase Downtown Jonesboro.   

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.