Monster Jam
| Private | |
| Industry | Sports Entertainment |
| Headquarters | Palmetto, Florida, United States of America |
Key people |
Charlie Mancuso, President, Feld Motor Sports Ken Hudgens, COO, Feld Motor Sports |
| Parent | Feld Entertainment |
| Website |
www |
Monster Jam is a live motorsport event tour and television show operated by Feld Entertainment.[1] The series is sanctioned under the umbrella of the United States Hot Rod Association (USHRA) and takes place primarily in the United States. Although individual event formats can vary greatly based on the "intermission" entertainment, the main attraction is always the racing and freestyle competitions by monster trucks.
Live events
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Monster Jam shows are held throughout the whole year with more shows during the winter than the summer, and travel around the country in U.S. and Canada. Shows are also being held in other locations around the world, such as Europe, Australia, Mexico, Costa Rica and recently The Philippines.
Fans
Fans attending a Monster Jam event are given the opportunity to meet the performers during the "Pit Party" and autograph sessions. The drivers autograph memorabilia, clothing, flags and other merchandise at these events.
Monster Jam World Finals
Held in Las Vegas, Nevada Sam Boyd Stadium, it is the culmination of the Monster Jam season with only the top competitors competing. It is often referred to as the "superbowl of monster trucks" and features drivers competing for the Racing and Freestyle Championship.
In 2012, Monster Jam started a new competition called the "Young Guns Shootout" on Double Down night. The following year it was announced that the winner of this event would get an automatic bid to the "main show"
Shows and Competition
At Monster Jam shows, monster trucks face off in two different forms of competition - Racing and Freestyle. In the smaller shows they have a wheelie competition and / or a donut contest or sometimes even both. The goal in the wheelie competition is to hit a ramp and get big air while remaining perpendicular to the ground.
In the donut competition a driver tries to spin their truck until he/she gets dizzy, the truck can't go any more, or they think they have a high enough score to win. Side-by-side racing is traditional heads-up tournament racing, where the first truck to cross the finish line moves onto the next round until it is eliminated or wins the racing trophy by winning the Championship race.
The freestyle competition allows drivers 90 seconds plus a 30-second bonus period on an open floor to show off their skills as they drive the trucks over cars, and doing stunts and tricks with their trucks. The freestyle winner is determined by 6 judges each giving a score out of 10. The high and the low scores are dropped that the fans gave. Then a monster jam official will score bonus time with a score of 1-5. The max score is 45 There are two winners from both events, however if the same person that won racing that night also won freestyle that night then they get the biggest trophy, next to the world finals trophy, the Double Down trophy, named after the Double Down activities in Las Vegas at the Monster Jam World Finals.
The Tour
The tour begins in the spring each year and ends in March with the World finals in Las Vegas every year. The tour visits many major cites in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia.
In 2015 an arena tour called "#MoreMonsterJam debuted and featured ATV races, Speedster races and obstacle races, monster truck wheelie and donut contests, monster truck obstacle course racing and freestyle. This tour featured 8 drivers driving 3 different vehicles in a points series. The top 2 finishers got an invite to the Monster Jam World Finals 16.
In 2015, Monster Jam started its first stadium tour called the Fox Sports 1 Championship Series. This tour followed 16 drivers each weekend on Fox Sports 1 competing for points in qualifying, racing, obstacle course racing and freestyle. The top 4 in the series got invites to the Monster Jam World Finals 16.
In 2016, Monster Jam will feature an East and West Coast #MoreMonsterJam series with only the winner of each tour getting an invite to Monster Jam World Finals 17.
In 2017, Monster Jam will have three arena tours called Monster Jam Triple Threat Series. An East, West, and Central where 8 drivers on each tour will battle it out for one spot in Monster Jam World Finals 18. Monster Jam will also have two FS1 Championship Tour called Monster Jam FS1 Championship Series. An East and West where 16 drivers will battle it out each weekend for one spot in Monster Jam World Finals 18.
Licensing
Mattel's Hot Wheels brand produces officially licensed toy versions of monster trucks under the Monster Jam name. They also sponsored a monster truck, which competed in the series in previous years. However, in 2008, the Hot Wheels truck was not on the circuit, replaced in the line up by Donkey Kong. In late 2011, Monster Jam announced a new Hot Wheels truck. The current driver of it is Scott Buetow, and at the 2012 World Finals, Neil Elliot drove it in his Maximum Destruction chassis. Five officially licensed Monster Jam video games have been produced. The first two, Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction, a vehicular combat game, and Monster 4x4: Masters of Metal, an arcade racing game, were published by Ubisoft. The third, titled simply Monster Jam, was released by Activision on November 13, 2007, and a sequel to it called Monster Jam: Urban Assault was released on October 28, 2008. A fifth game, Monster Jam: Path of Destruction, was released on November 9, 2010. On June 17, 2015 Monster Jam Battlegrounds was released as a download from Xbox Live and Steam. On October 26, 2016, Monster Jam: Crush It! was released on XBox one and Playstation 4.
Media coverage
Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 have aired some coverage since early 2014. Prior to that, Monster Jam aired on TNN and SPEED. "Season in review" packages occasionally air on CBS as part of the CBS Sports Spectacular. Clips from events are periodically posted on Monster Jam's official YouTube and Facebook pages.
It also airs on One in Australia.
In 2015 and 2016 Fox Sports 1 aired the Monster Jam FS1 Championship Series the next Sunday after the event so the fans could keep up on the action.
In 2017 Monster Jam will air two Monster Jam FS1 Championship Series an East and West. All events will air on FS1 the following weekend.