Jonesboro, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) – October 2, 2025 – Thursday night was the first time a new “cashless” transactions policy was used to facilitate paid event parking at First National Bank Arena. Thursday’s event was the Toby Mac, MercyMe and Matthew West Christian artist concert. Arena officials had announced the fully cashless policy, including paid parking, on September 23.
The concert began at 7:00pm. But long before then social media lit up with posts and comments complaining about long traffic lines waiting to park, reportedly caused by painfully slow experiences with the paid parking “cashless” transaction devices.
“I drove my two 16-year-old girls all the way from Hot Springs just to worry if I will run out of gas waiting to park,” wrote Carmen Nichols in the comments on a First National Bank Arena Facebook post. “I am still a mile away and we left from our hotel an hour ago.”
“We’ve been in line for over an hour now,” wrote Laurie Arnold.
One of the advertised “perks” for the new cashless system was the ability to buy and pay for parking in advance. “How about a special entrance for parking for those that prepaid for parking?” questioned Krista Couch. “A separate line? No perks in paying ahead of time if you still have to wait 2+ hours to park.”
C.J. Bradley was disappointed that the arena only utilized two of its entrances for admission to Thursday night’s concert. “A-State should have to refund every single ticket to tonight’s concert,” Bradley wrote. “Having five entrances and only letting people enter in two of them is downright wrong. Been waiting for an hour now and have moved ten car lengths total.”
The arena utilized one entrance (yellow) for the recent Whiskey Myers and Dwight Yoakam concerts. Two entrances (yellow and red) were in use at the Jon Pardi concert on September 20.
JonesboroRightNow has asked for feedback from leaders at First National Bank Arena.