Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – April 9, 2024 – A Jonesboro woman took to Facebook about her experiences this past weekend at Joe Mack Campbell Park.
Brittney Johnson posted a numbered list of concerns regarding the CityStars program April 6 including issues with players benches, lines on the fields, referee assignments, paper towels in the restrooms, and season pass prices.
Her concerns regarding the City of Jonesboro soccer program were addressed by the Jonesboro Parks and Recreation director on Tuesday.
Danny Kapales said the first weekend of spring soccer had “a couple of hiccups,” but otherwise he was happy with how it turned out.
Brittney Johnson said in her Facebook post that her daughter’s team didn’t have a referee while the boys’ teams did. Elizabeth Baltz Wade added in the comments of the post, “We are at First Security Field B and have been waiting 20 minutes for a ref. So now we are playing without a ref or whistle. It’s crazy!”
Kapales said they were down one referee for the day and since the girls’ team was younger than the boys’, they had coaches referees the girls’ games. He said that wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.
Johnson also said in her post that the fields weren’t lined. Kapales said he inspected the fields before play started and that they were lined.
As far as Johnson’s complaint that there weren’t enough benches for players, Kapales said there was some truth in that, and the staff failed to provide enough on some fields. He said the park had enough, they just weren’t put into place. Breanna Walton also commented on Johnson’s post, “We had no benches on our field!”
Johnson mentioned in her post that season pass prices doubled. Kapales said season pass prices have remained the same since 2017.
Alternatively, comments on Johnson’s post included sentiments like “I also noticed the change for season passes” from Caitlin Blair and Dale Barber and Angee Jones who both expressed that they heard that season passes went up this year. Johnson mentioned that she thought there might be some miscommunication about the prices going up from $15 from $50.
Kapales said he directed Stephen Davis, the Parks and Recreation’s soccer coordinator, to reach out to anyone with complaints to try to work out an understanding about any issues.