Took my son to Monster Jam at the Sprint Center on Saturday. You can check out the pictures here.

My dad used to take me to things like this at the Kansas Coliseum when I was a kid. I always enjoyed it. Darryl Starbird’s Rod & Custom Show was always a big deal. When I wasn’t playing with Lego, I was out in the sandbox with my Stompers making tracks. The cool cars, big trucks, tractor pulls and the monster truck races were bigger than life.

I think my expectations were a little higher than they should have been. On the way home from the event I felt about the same as I did after watching The Empire Strikes Back again a couple of years ago. It was so awesome as a kid, but as an adult, I’m like, “Wow, this isn’t as good as I remember it being.”

So here’s what I did like about Monster Jam at the Sprint Center:

The Sprint Center is stinkin’ cool. Being able to see the outside from the inside is pretty amazing. We could see that was going on pretty well from the nose-bleed section. Every seat had a cup holder and was pretty comfortable. Didn’t seem too cramped at all. The scoreboard and the marquee around the arena was pretty spectacular and bright. The parking wasn’t a problem at at all. We paid $10 bucks for event parking and only had to walk a block.

So here’s what I didn’t like about Monster Jam at the Sprint Center:

The event itself, well, sucked. Here’s why:

• They took my favorite pocket knife at the front gate. They gave me the chance to take it back to the car, but I didn’t want to do it for the sake of my son. Like I’m going to storm the cockpit of the arena. I’ve been to several events at the Target Center in Minneapolis and the Xcel Energy Center in Minneapolis all post 9/11 and not once have they not allowed small pocket knives. Stupid.
• The arena was too small to really race the trucks. The races were like 20 yards over three cars. What kind of race is that? A wheelie contest?? Hmmpph.
• The drivers were too passive (with the exception of the Avenger driver) and not daring at all.
• The announcer/emcee guy didn’t know what he was doing at certain points in the show.
• The quad races were obviously staged and ho-hum.
• The freestyle motocross riders were also ho-hum. I’ve seen much better stuff on the X-Games on TV on Sunday afternoons.
• There was no surprise. I hoped that Grave Digger would make an appearance and do something crazy, but no. At the end, I’m saying to myself, “That’s it?”

So, in conclusion, it was fun to get out and do something with my son, but it was pretty obvious to me that monster truck racing has gone the way of WWF wrestling — much better in the good old days. Take me back to Bigfoot and Snake Bite thank you. The Sprint Center was cool, and I’m looking forward to seeing a real event there some day — a basketball game or something.