Grave Digger thundered onto the field at M&T Bank Stadium on Thursday for a sneak peek at Monster Jam's long-awaited return to the venue, ending a 13-year gap since the tour's last stadium show in Baltimore. The truck's driver, Tyler Menninga, appeared alongside Ravens Senior Vice President of Stadium Operations and Guest Experience Rich Tamayo, who traded jerseys with the driver to mark the occasion.
Monster Jam will bring its full stadium show back to M&T Bank Stadium on April 17, 2027, according to WBFF. The last time the tour rolled through Baltimore for a stadium event was June 8, 2013, as part of its “Path of Destruction” tour, a gap of roughly 13 years documented by the Monster Trucks Wiki. Organizers said the April event will celebrate Monster Jam's 35th anniversary and feature stunts, kills, big air, and action-packed entertainment, taking over Baltimore for the weekend with Monster Jam trucks and drivers on hand.
A Driver on a Hot Streak
Menninga is the current driver behind the wheel of Grave Digger, and he's arriving in Baltimore fresh off a career milestone. He won the JCB Racing World Championship at Monster Jam World Finals XXV in Salt Lake City this past July, adding to a resume that now includes five tour championships since he joined the Grave Digger team in 2017, per Monster Jam. He made his Monster Jam debut in 2016 driving Blue Thunder before moving over to Grave Digger, according to background documented on the Monster Trucks Wiki. Hoodline covered his championship run in an earlier report on the Monster Jam World Finals XXV in Salt Lake City.
Grave Digger itself needs little introduction to monster truck fans. Dennis Anderson originally created the truck in 1982 in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, and it has since become Monster Jam's flagship team, with trucks weighing roughly 12,000 pounds and running engines producing between 1,450 and 1,500 horsepower, according to background compiled on Wikipedia. Monster Jam currently fields seven active Grave Digger trucks driven by different competitors across its various touring circuits, per the same entry.
A Stadium Built for the Comeback
The return to a stadium setting comes just weeks after the Baltimore Ravens and Maryland Stadium Authority wrapped a three-year, $489 million modernization of M&T Bank Stadium in August, upgrading concourses, audio and visual systems, and hospitality spaces, according to Stadia World. The renovation was designed specifically to draw large-scale non-NFL events, concerts, and family shows to the venue, according to Stadium Tech Report. Under a lease extension running through at least 2037, M&T Bank Stadium already hosts a mix of NFL games, international soccer matches, NCAA lacrosse championships, and concert tours, per the Ravens.
While the stadium shows paused for over a decade, Monster Jam didn't disappear from the Baltimore market entirely. The tour kept a local footprint through indoor arena appearances, including a multi-day showcase at the renovated CFG Bank Arena in April 2023, according to a post from WMAR-2 News on Facebook. That indoor stint bridged the gap until the renovated stadium could accommodate the full-scale production again.
Ticket Timeline and Anniversary Tour
Fans hoping to lock in seats early can sign up as Monster Jam preferred customers ahead of a preferred-customer presale beginning September 15 on SeatGeek.com, which includes an exclusive pre-sale code. General-public tickets go on sale September 22, also through SeatGeek.com.
The Baltimore stop lands squarely within Monster Jam's 35th anniversary season, a milestone year that also includes the 2027 Monster Jam World Finals at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis over the Fourth of July weekend, a scheduling detail Hoodline previously reported. Monster Jam was founded in 1992 under the United States Hot Rod Association and is owned and operated by Feld Entertainment, Inc., a Palmetto, Florida-based company that hosts more than 350 live events worldwide each year, according to Wikipedia's entry on the organization.
Feld Entertainment has also been expanding its truck roster in recent seasons, including through a renewed multi-year partnership with toy company Spin Master to turn die-cast toy concepts into full-scale, 12,000-pound live show trucks — a process Hoodline detailed in its report on the unicorn-themed Sparkle Smash truck. Live audiences also get a hand in deciding outcomes: stadium fans can score two-wheel skills and freestyle events in real time through the JudgesZone mobile platform, with head-to-head racing remaining the lone event decided by official timers rather than crowd votes, as Hoodline previously reported.
