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Monster Trucks Head To M&T Bank Stadium

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- You've seen them in front of sell-out crowds at 1st Mariner Arena, but now they're coming to a much bigger place.

Ron Matz reports monster trucks are heading for Baltimore and they'll be competing where the Ravens play.

Here they come. This time monster trucks will do their thing at M&T Bank Stadium.

The 10,000-pound machine called Maximum Destruction with 600-pound tires will be there.

World champ Tom Meents will be there, too.

"Monster Jam's coming to town July 9. Maximum Destruction and 11 other great trucks will be out there tearing the place up. These trucks will fly 30 feet in the air. They're exciting to watch," said Tom Meents, champion driver of Maximum Destruction. "My truck is 1,500 horsepower, 10 feet tall and the tires are five and a half feet tall. The thing weighs 10,000 pounds and boy is it fast."

With the monster trucks and thousands of pounds of dirt coming in, stadium crews are prepared to take special care of the field.

"First and foremost we're going to protect the field. One of the things we want to make sure of, when we bring these big heavy trucks out on the field, is that they don't damage the field in any way. We'll have our groundskeepers work with the folks at Feld to make sure that doesn't happen. We're very confident in that. We know it's going to work out well," said Roy Sommerhof, Vice President of Stadium Operations for the Baltimore Ravens. "We've had concerts and other sporting events, but this is the first time we've had what we call a family oriented event at the stadium. We're really excited and enthusiastic about it."

Ravens cheerleaders are ready, so is Poe. It's a deal two years in the making.

"The demand for Monster Jam in this city is just over the top, so we're bringing it to a bigger venue and we hope we sell out here just like we do at 1st Mariner," said Mark Duryea, Vice President of Feld Entertainment. "This town is one of the largest motor sports towns we play across the U.S.A. Anaheim is another big one and the Los Angeles area, but Baltimore holds its own. People here love the sport, just like they love their football. They love the adrenaline rush."

The adrenaline will be rushing like Ray Rice rushes the field.

"I've been to Baltimore before, but never on a field of this size. It's a huge setting. It's going to be a lot of fun in July because we'll have a lot of room to make these machines strut their stuff. It's a beautiful facility and it will be an exciting show for the fans," said Meents.

This is the first event of this type at M&T Bank Stadium. Twelve monster trucks will take part in the competition on July 9.

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