My thoughts on the monster truck industry

[CarCrusher]

I mean no offense to anyone by this, But it just kind of puzzles me that folks in the monster truck business, truck owners and drivers, don’t want to see their support become a real motorsport. Why they just accept it the way it is, a Disney on ice show. I can’t believe monster truck teams don’t want to actually complete, to have a real racing series that is just like NASCAR or NHRA or the Lucas oil truck series. Seems like every other motorsport is real. It is focused on racing and real competition. The teams actually get into it, they hire the best drivers, etc...  seems like monster trucks are the only one in which people are OK with just monkeying around doing freestyle and only being nominally considered a “sport”, and that being a generous descriptor. It just kind of blows my mind. Monster trucks are so freaking awesome, They deserve a serious racing league like every other motorsport, and no one seems to care. Blows my mind. 

[litl_e_fan]

I don't understand what a racing only series would bring to the table that the many other mixed discipline series already do.The only thing I can see from your ideas that might be unique is the field size, assuming that's 20 trucks on track at once. We've already seen that more than 2 in a stadium doesn't really work, in which case you have to go to speedways. Monster trucks have no business racing as a pack on an oval track for a wide variety of reasons. If you mean a head-to-head bracket competition like we have from pretty much every promoter today, how do you fill the time left over from cutting out more than half of the elements of the show?

[maxdman]

10 hours ago, CarCrusher said:

I mean no offense to anyone by this, But it just kind of puzzles me that folks in the monster truck business, truck owners and drivers, don’t want to see their support become a real motorsport. Why they just accept it the way it is, a Disney on ice show. I can’t believe monster truck teams don’t want to actually complete, to have a real racing series that is just like NASCAR or NHRA or the Lucas oil truck series. Seems like every other motorsport is real. It is focused on racing and real competition. The teams actually get into it, they hire the best drivers, etc...  seems like monster trucks are the only one in which people are OK with just monkeying around doing freestyle and only being nominally considered a “sport”, and that being a generous descriptor. It just kind of blows my mind. Monster trucks are so freaking awesome, They deserve a serious racing league like every other motorsport, and no one seems to care. Blows my mind. 

There's a few reasons.  Money, $, money, money $ $ money $$$$$$.  

Independents often times don't break even after weekends, and if that goes on for months that puts a massive hurt on the operating costs.  There's just not enough money involved in the industry to make it where winning means something, where drivers will push their equipment to the edge every single weekend.  It's not like NASCAR, NHRA, or other top forms of motorsport that have big corporations backing teams and shoveling money to be the best operation on the track.  Monster trucks just simply aren't like that.... yet.

Big businesses and brands have been pulling out of motorsports, mainly due to the extreme costs its required to run teams (if anyone follows NASCAR look at Furniture Row Racing, or Ganassi not fielding Xfinity cars this year), if there's no business giving the teams money the operating costs are too high.  But that being said, Monster Jam is pulling in contracts with corporations at a time when other major motorsports are losing them, which is an upside.  Downside is that it goes to the company and not the teams or drivers (due to FELD owning over half the field which is whatever).  And I don't have actual figures but I'm sure the BKT and Great Clips deal aren't anywhere close to what NASCAR sponsorship contracts are.  But if saying the word "BKT Tire" and "Great Clips Mohawk Warrior" gets the job done and keeps the industry alive, then say it every run.  If you argue that you don't want to hear it, then don't watch motorsports because that's everywhere, Goodyear tire, driver of the number 48 Lowes Chevy.  It pays the bills so it gets done.

But bottom line, independents don't have the financial backing to bash their equipment every show, because it just simply isn't worth it.  If everyone was paid show pay (as discussed before) and on top of that based on points or where the driver finished in the event, then I'm sure it would be a different conversation because operating costs would be covered, and everything else can either go in their pocket, or back into the equipment.

[Jon Cannon]

1 hour ago, maxdman said:

There's a few reasons.  Money, $, money, money $ $ money $$$$$$.  

Independents often times don't break even after weekends, and if that goes on for months that puts a massive hurt on the operating costs. 

Unless the independent already has loads of money, I.E Koehler. 

[CarCrusher]

6 hours ago, litl_e_fan said:

how do you fill the time left over from cutting out more than half of the elements of the show?

By having a larger truck field. I’m proposing 20 trucks. That’s 21 races per show not counting qualifying, which would add 10- 20 runs to the race depending on if you do them one truck at a time or 2. Just the 21 races itself would take up the whole show then some with minor events in between. Tracks would have pass times of 1- 1.5 mins. Allow 3 mins in between runs, so you’re looking at a good 1.5 hours just of monster truck competition there. So if you take into account that most arena MJ shows have 8 trucks. Thats 7 races in racing (much shorter passes mind you), 8 freestyle runs, and 8 wheelie contest runs. That’s 23 runs total, only two more than the 20-truck racing-only event. And with the racing passes being much shorter in the arena MJ show, you’re looking at about the same amount of competition.

3 hours ago, maxdman said:

Monster trucks just simply aren't like that.... yet.

This makes me think of another damnig factor. If monster trucks aren’t there yet, will they ever be? Or maybe a better question is - are monster trucks still relevant? If you think about it, the world as we know it is changing rapidly. Pretty soon in our future, cars and trucks as we know them today will be gone, and we’ll all be riding around in fully self-driving, electric bubbles. The internal-combustion engine will be a relic of the past and will cease being produced. By that time, will the concept of a monster truck bear any relevancy or familiarity in anyone’s mind? Monster trucks are supposed to be overgrown versions of regular trucks. How will they be versions of anything when there are no longer trucks produced as we currently know trucks? I think perhaps monster trucks, along with all current forms of motorsport will become irrelevant in the near future. Maybe I’m wrong.

[maxdman]

4 hours ago, Jon Cannon said:

Unless the independent already has loads of money, I.E Koehler. 

From other business ventures though, Koehler often times operates in the negatives because of how hard and big that entire team runs.  A lot of independents have other forms of income from their other businesses and have their teams as a hobby.  Yes some independents can fund themselves but its a 24/7 365 operation with very little off and down time.  Drivers and team owners say they do it because they love it, and that' the truth because if they did it for the money, it would't last long at all.

I'm not directing this at you because I'm sure you probably know, but just stating info

[CarCrusher]

Got another question. Tried to get it out of Nitro Menace but he wouldn’t get detailed with his responses. How much does your typical independent team get paid by the promoter per event? If that’s too nosey of a question, what is the minimum price that would make it worth it?

[Nick Migues]

On 1/25/2019 at 10:40 PM, CarCrusher said:

Got another question. Tried to get it out of Nitro Menace but he wouldn’t get detailed with his responses. How much does your typical independent team get paid by the promoter per event? If that’s too nosey of a question, what is the minimum price that would make it worth it?

Like I said, it varies. Bigger name trucks will charge you more. Most people won’t tell you what they’ll run for unless you are trying to book them, and honestly it’s not info to be out in the public. 

Also Koehler has insanely well built trucks to take the crazy stuff they do, so that’s why they can run so dang hard. Their trucks are tanks 

[EightBitMS]

On 1/13/2019 at 12:24 PM, NtheDiggerfan said:

Feld sucks big toes. Almost all competitions in stadiums yesterday were won by Spinmaster, and fire and ice trucks. Totally rigged. 

Trust me, I know people on the inside of MJ and that is far from scripted or rigged. Only thing scripted is the scheduling and timing of everything, the action on the track is very much unscripted.

[CarCrusher]

On 1/28/2019 at 10:12 PM, EightBitMS said:

Trust me, I know people on the inside of MJ and that is far from scripted or rigged. Only thing scripted is the scheduling and timing of everything, the action on the track is very much unscripted.

Unscripted or not, it’s still not real racing. It’s like WWE. None of the drivers/teams care who wins. They’re not competing for anything. They’re putting on a show. The driver’s job isn’t going to be in jeopardy if he/she loses. They may “really race” when they’re out there. But they really don’t at the same time. They pretend to race. Like I said, I love monster trucks, but I don’t like the sport it became. 

[DJKBarn]

11 hours ago, CarCrusher said:

Unscripted or not, it’s still not real racing. It’s like WWE. None of the drivers/teams care who wins. They’re not competing for anything. They’re putting on a show. The driver’s job isn’t going to be in jeopardy if he/she loses. They may “really race” when they’re out there. But they really don’t at the same time. They pretend to race. Like I said, I love monster trucks, but I don’t like the sport it became. 

Sure they aren't racing for a prize money (not that we know of), but their still racing for points, those points still count as something. So in reality saying they are just racing because they're told isn't quite true.

[Nick Migues]

I mean honestly we all want to win no matter what,  we still care about competing because we all want to be the best, and no it’s not scripted at all 

[Leviathan]

14 hours ago, CarCrusher said:

Unscripted or not, it’s still not real racing. It’s like WWE. None of the drivers/teams care who wins. They’re not competing for anything. They’re putting on a show. The driver’s job isn’t going to be in jeopardy if he/she loses. They may “really race” when they’re out there. But they really don’t at the same time. They pretend to race. Like I said, I love monster trucks, but I don’t like the sport it became. 

if it was anything close to wwe they would have a bracket and a set event winner which they never do. all the times are real and all the judgeszone scores are a real. as a person who works behind the scenes its all legit. the way its presented and marketed yeah i can see your point for sure. heck im working with the Garners this week and Jamey was upset after losing to Todd and said he wants to beat em. theres really no pretending. also if this was like wwe, wheres the heels? well i guess we the fans are heels with judgeszone scores.

[EightBitMS]

14 hours ago, CarCrusher said:

Unscripted or not, it’s still not real racing. It’s like WWE. None of the drivers/teams care who wins. They’re not competing for anything. They’re putting on a show. The driver’s job isn’t going to be in jeopardy if he/she loses. They may “really race” when they’re out there. But they really don’t at the same time. They pretend to race. Like I said, I love monster trucks, but I don’t like the sport it became. 

[CarCrusher]

1 hour ago, levimadnessschones said:

if it was anything close to wwe they would have a bracket and a set event winner which they never do. all the times are real and all the judgeszone scores are a real. as a person who works behind the scenes its all legit. the way its presented and marketed yeah i can see your point for sure. heck im working with the Garners this week and Jamey was upset after losing to Todd and said he wants to beat em. theres really no pretending. also if this was like wwe, wheres the heels? well i guess we the fans are heels with judgeszone scores.

I actually don’t believe it’s not “real”. Obviously, I know that when two trucks pull to the line, they’re actually racing each other. I’m also not trying to disparage the monster truck industry. I just think it focuses too much on being a “show” than being a race. In the eyes of the general public, it’s not a legitimate sport. It is generally viewed in roughly the same way as professional wrestling. Yes, the entertainers are talented at what they do, yes the maneuvers require skill, but it’s only nominally serious, and mostly just a show. I’m only speaking for myself personally. I would like to see monster trucks treated like a real motorsport. I would like to see a successful racing-only series with purse money (on top of a flat booking payout of course), and real competition. Ultimately, I would like to see the sport given some much due credibility.