Monster Jam finals truckin’ to Orlando
Camping World to host 2019, ’20 championships
The Super Bowl of monstertruck racing — which promises to pack an economic punch of $44 million and fill 44,000 hotel rooms — is coming to Orlando next year.
Sarasota-based Feld Entertainment, owner of the big-truck touring series, made the announcement Wednesday at Camping World Stadium, which will be the venue for the event in May 2019 and May 2020.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs rode into the event aboard a modified monster truck with an entourage that included Bari Musawwir, 37, of Ocoee, driver of the monster truck Zombie.
“How cool is this?” Dyer asked about the city hosting the Monster Jam World Finals, the engine-roaring, car-crushing sport’s championship.
The announcement came less than two months after the Central Florida Sports Commission, which
helped Orlando land WrestleMania 24 in 2008 and WrestleMania 33 in 2017, sought $1.7 million in hotel-tax revenue for Orlando’s bid for the Monster Jam championship. County commissioners approved the incentive.
The sports commission’s appeal for $1.7 million — $850,000 each for the 2019 and the ‘20 Monster Jam championships — required the event promoter to market the event as “being held in Orlando.”
“This is a family sport,” said Jason Siegel, sports commission president and CEO. “It’s an incredibly entertaining sport. I think it might be one of those... when you try it, I think they’ll have you hooked and you’ll come back year after year to watch it.”
He joked that he planned to impress his son by picking the second-grader up from school in a monster truck.
Orlando has been a regular stop on the monstertruck tour, hosting annual shows at the Amway Center or the former Citrus Bowl, now Camping World Stadium.
The 65,000-seat stadium hosted a show in January while the Amway Center served as the venue in August.
But Central Florida has never hosted the championship event, which is sometimes billed as the tour’s Super Bowl or its Daytona 500, featuring the best drivers and highest-profile big-wheeled, acrobatic trucks.
The ’19 finals will be held May 10-11. Tickets go on sale to the general public Nov. 1.
The event has been held in Las Vegas since the championship was created 18 years ago. Starting next year, the event will begin a rotation of venues starting with a location to be determined.
“We want to bring it home,” said Feld Entertainment CEO Kenneth Feld was, who lives in Florida. “There’s no better place than Orlando... We want more people to see Monster Jam than ever before and we feel this is the best opportunity we have.”
Feld Entertainment, which owned Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and stages Disney on Ice, describes Monster Jam on its website as featuring the most recognizable trucks in the world, including Grave Digger, El Toro Loco and Monster Mutt.
The massive motorized marvels are the main attractions, spitting dirt while spinning, tumbling and bouncing off earthen mounds.
“For Orlando to host such a great event like this, the fans deserve it,” said Musawwir, among the tour’s top drivers. “If you come to a Monster Jam in January, the fans tailgate. They come out in huge numbers — it usually sells out. But for the World Finals to come here, that’s just icing on the cake.”
Jacobs recalled attending a monster-truck show with her family years ago. She said her sons were “super thrilled” but she went along for the ride.
“I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” Jacobs said. “We had an absolute blast.”
The county mayor said the $207 million investment in upgrades to the stadium has paid off with world-class events, including the NFL Pro Bowl, international soccer matches and now the Monster Jam World Finals, expected to draw more than 100,000 people.
“We do it knowing there’s always a return on that investment,” she said.
The hotel tax, sometimes called the tourist or bed tax, generates millions of dollars from Central Florida's tourism industry.
The 6-percent charge on hotels, motels and other short-term lodging in Orange County brought in about $255 million during the 2017 fiscal year.
The Tourist Development Tax Sports Incentive Committee, which endorsed the Orlando bid for the Monster Jam World Finals, was created in 2017 to help Orange County commissioners evaluate funding proposals for marquee sporting events,