Abstract

After a two year hiatus, Monster Jam returns its crown jewel event, the 21st Annual World Finals in Orlando, Florida. This is the second time the world finals was hosted in Orlando. With the past 19 world finals events hosted at Las Vegas, Nevada. Twenty-four athletes will compete for the racing and freestyle title, while eight athletes will compete for two wheel skills and high jump. The biggest question is what are ways the Monster Jam World Finals can be improved?

Roots

Back in the 2000’s, The Monster Jam World Finals was hosted in Las Vegas. It was hosted there until 2018. The world finals at Las Vegas put up two stellar competitions: racing and freestyle. It was hosted one day in March at the time. In 2014, it expanded to two days. One day of racing and one day of freestyle. In 2019, the event was moved to Camping World Stadium in Orlando. During the pandemic, the world finals were not programmed in 2020 and 2021. With the return of the crown jewel event in 2022. 2023 would be the 22nd annual World Finals hosted in Nashville Tennessee at Nissan Stadium in the summer with the date to be determined.  

What Monster Jam did right for the World Finals

The Monster Jam YouTube channel featured a vlog series for the 21st annual World Finals. It showed driver personalities before, during, and after the show. This is what the sport of Monster Jam needed, to build up their athletes. The vlog series showed the audience behind the scenes coverage of track preparation, the pressure of winning the world finals championship, and the event itself. If Monster Jam continues the vlog series, instead of knowing the Monster Jam truck, it’s known for the drivers of the truck because the type of character they are on and off the track.

Improvement.

Feld Entertainment can improve Monster Jam by having the world finals live with a brand new location for the 2023 event in Nashville. Instead of making the show as an episode production, make the event live for fans who cannot attend the rally. Fans who couldn’t attend the event relied on twitter updates, instagram feeds, and YouTube uploads after the event concluded. A few times, the Monster Jam had live events broadcast on national television, like in the world finals 2013 on Pay-per-View and Speed Channel live broadcast in Atlanta in 2010. If Feld Entertainment can have Monster Jam events live, it will gain audience viewership and draw in brand new audiences to the sport. 

Racing competition saw a change the last three iterations. The first being from 2000-2018 with the racing being technical. Starting off, from the Vegas parking lot at Sam Boyd Stadium, then rack up speed from thunder alley. Here, trucks hit 60-75 mph toward the end of the stadium. They then make a huge U-Turn with the rear steer and beat out the opponent to advance the next round. The events in Orlando saw two different racing styles at the world finals. In 2019, they raced on top of the stadium and had a cheap copy of the Vegas style of racing. This year saw a figure eight style of racing where trucks go under and over. The Nashville style of racing is yet to be determined. Monster Jam can’t really go back to it’s natural roots with the event being held at Vegas.   

Freestyle competition has unique obstacles. The Monster Jam tracks for the world finals have been boring since 2016. From 2008-2014 saw the best obstacles jumps in the World Finals. With the exception of the triple jump, a lot of crush cars, vans and motorhomes and huge ramps pushed the freestyle competition. With 2015-22, the obstacles became a decline with a lot of dirt ramps and crushed cars and buses being buried instead of crushed. The freestyle competition needs have meaning to the sport and for the drivers.  

No need for entertainment competitions. Unnecessary to have the high jump and two wheel skills challenge at the World Finals. That is viewed as entertainment, not as a serious competition. The high jump competition ruins the Monster Jam truck for the main event competition for freestyle. Two wheels skills is a competition known as “saving the truck”. It’s time consuming and repetitive, not creative. Monster Jam should keep its crown jewel event known as racing and freestyle. Have two world finals on the line. If Monster Jam removes the high jump and two wheel skills, it can expand its field from 24 to 32 competitors. When having the World Finals Racing and Freestyle title on the line for 32 competitors to compete for it, the championships have meaning to it.