Monster truck company hits out at 's***hole' stadium in tirade

A “boring” monster truck show touring New Zealand has cancelled several events after receiving 264 complaints.

Patrons were left disappointed on Saturday when the Monster Trucks & FMX Spectacular, organised by Monster Truck Promotions Australia, hosted their show at Trustpower Baypark in Tauranga.

What took place was an event which fans describe as being full of lacklustre stunts and “zero entertainment value.”

Reportedly, the trucks did barely any tricks, waiting 10 minutes before jumping over a car three or four times and driving around the track.

At $183.50 for a family pass, $63.50 for an adult and $37.88 for children, many felt the night did not live up to the “spectacular” that was promised.

After about 45 minutes, fans reportedly started to leave.

Fans said that while the motocross was entertaining, the trucks were disappointing.

One person on Facebook said the show was an “actual waste of time and worst waste of f***ing money ever.”

“I would have had better excitement watching my son play with his [toy] monster trucks.”

Another said: “This was such a ridiculous show. All that money to watch a couple of trucks drive around for a total of maybe 10 minutes?!”

One fan said: "What a disappointing event, the clear lack of any entertainment value and piss poor planning leaves Kiwis walking out in disappointment."

1News spoke to Christine Jones, who attended the event with her two boys; she called it a "rip off".

"We were disappointed because the hype for the show was really high; they advertised it like there would be car crushing and maybe even fireworks - not just three trucks dring around in circles," she said.

"My two boys were really bored; we ended up leaving early."

"It was not the 'extravaganza' we were promised."

In an email sent to patrons yesterday, the organisers revealed they’d received 264 complaints after the Tauranga show - but blamed the poor reception on the stadium’s infrastructure and a broken PA system.

“We acknowledge that early into the evening, 40% of the venues PA system collapsed, and so many patrons seemed to think that this was unorganised and chaotic, then after Event 8, the entire system failed, just as announcers stated that it was going to break, so patrons thought it was the end of the event, and it obviously wasn’t.

“The organisers were in no way responsible for the break in the PA that led to people not knowing what attractions were going on.”

They said that the show relies on sound effects to create an atmosphere, which was lost after it broke.

“Like in a theatre group performance, they rely on the sound and effects to add to the performance like in a countdown to the space shuttle; you need to know the countdown before it takes off.”

“Our event did need to have a sound system to add to the performance, but this was in no way the organiser's fault. This was the venue.”

Further blame was passed onto the venue, with organisers saying traffic and slow entry into the area delayed the show.

“We are sorry for the infrastructure that this venue has in place for events.”

When it came to the jumps and tricks, organisers said the height of jumps was “comparable” to any Monster Truck event in the USA.

“I would like to see where all the experts have their list of qualifications to know the height of a monster truck and how it should be driven.”

They continued by placing more blame on the arena, saying it was wet, with the damp conditions impeding the performance of the trucks, not being able to drive as fast as usual.

As for the price, the organisers defended that too, saying it was reasonable in today's economy.

“We have run the program in its entirety, and for those patrons that requested a refund, we have not scammed anyone of their money, and the family pass of 2 adults and 3 kids being $180 in today’s economy is not an expensive outlay when considering that Nitro and Crustys are $70 per person.”

The email finished by taking another shot at the venue, closing with: “These inadequacies are not any of our doing, and if you do have a problem with these, please take this up at the venue Baypark Venue itself directly.”

“We have already gone ahead and cancelled other events, much to the disappointment of families in the areas.”

Trustpower Baypark Chief Executive Chad Hooker apologised for the technical issues during the event, saying he "acknowledges that this had an impact on the quality of the experience."

"We will be working to ensure this issue doesn't occur again in future."

When it comes to the organiser's claims that the stadium's infrastructure was poor, Hooker attributed issues to the ongoing Baylink road project.

"We actively worked with the promoter and Tauranga City Council's transportation team to streamline traffic flows as much as possible."

"We would like to thank those ticket holders that walked or biked, and those that came early based on our pre-event communications that delays entering the venue were expected. Our venue operations log confirms that all patrons were able to arrive prior to the event starting and that the on-site car park was not completely full."

Refunds for the Tauranga show will not be issued, with organisers saying they fulfilled their obligations.

"We should at least get a partial refund," Christina Jones said.

"They did not fulfil their obligations."

In messages seen by 1News, the organisers lashed out at a disgruntled patron who was complaining about the Tauranga show.

The message that was reportedly sent by the Monster Truck Promotions Facebook account called Trustpower Baypark a “F***ing kiwi f***ing s***hole stadium.”

The message went on to say that after this weekend’s show at Auckland's Waikaraka Park, “you are getting your money back, and we will take our supposed s*** show home to sell out shows that run month after month there to thousands of very happy kids.”

“No wonder virtually nothing comes to your country,” they finished with.

The organiser confirmed to 1News that he did call the stadium a s***hole but said it was taken out of context as he was distressed about threats patrons were sending.

"I am embarrassed and very sorry. I have been doing this for 30 years and never experienced this type of behaviour."

"It was taken entirely out of context at a time when even my ex-partner had had threats on her Facebook page, and I was very hurt by the whole situation."