St. Louis Battlehawks

During the 2020 season, the Battlehawks were the only XFL team that was founded in a market that lacked a current National Football League franchise. St. Louis hosted NFL football in 1923 with the All-Stars, 1934 with the Gunners, 1960 to 1987 with the Cardinals, and again from 1995 to 2015 with the Rams, which moved to Los Angeles in the 2016 season. There is a significant negative sentiment against the NFL in St. Louis,^[32] as the owners of the Cardinals and Rams moved to other markets, with the Cardinals saying the city and county governments of St. Louis declined to provide an adequate new stadium and the Rams saying the Dome at America's Center was unacceptable and rejecting the offer of a new stadium in the market in favor of relocating back to Los Angeles. As St. Louis was one of the most recent cities to lose an NFL team, with acceptable facilities by XFL standards, the dome was seen as a good choice. In 2026, following the Kansas City Chiefs' announcement of its own plans to leave the state of Missouri for a new stadium in the state of Kansas, Missouri State Senator Nick Schroer introduced a resolution seeking to declare the Battlehawks as Missouri's official professional football team, stripping that distinction from the Chiefs.^[33]

St. Louis has hosted one alternative professional football team: the Arena Football League's St. Louis Stampede of 1995 and 1996. None of the major alternative outdoor leagues of the late 20th and early 21st centuries had a team there. Some indoor football teams have played at Family Arena in suburban St. Charles, Missouri, including the RiverCity Rage and River City Raiders. Until Lindenwood University (located in St. Charles) joined the Ohio Valley Conference in 2022, St. Louis had also been devoid of NCAA Division I football at both the FBS and FCS levels since 1949, when the Saint Louis University Billikens dropped football as an intercollegiate sport; the nearest FBS football squad, the Missouri Tigers, play in Columbia, and since 2023 with the return of the Battlehawks, the Tigers have played occasional home games at the Dome,^[34] sharing an aging roll-away turf surface with the Battlehawks that proved to be unsightly when relined for the Tigers' use.^[35] This prompted a substantial renovation to improve the turf and lighting in 2024.^[36]

The St. Louis Battlehawks share the Missouri winter sports market with one other major professional team, the National Hockey League's St. Louis Blues, and with the Billikens', Lions' and Tigers' college basketball teams. In the spring the Battlehawks share the pro sports market with Major League Soccer's St Louis City SC and the Major League Baseball St Louis Cardinals.

The Dome at America's Center was built for a future National Football League expansion team or relocation and as an addition to the adjoining St. Louis Convention Center. In 1995, the under-construction dome lured the Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis. After the Rams left in 2016, the Dome continued to host a plethora of other events, enough that the stadium was unable to host a team in the former Alliance of American Football for the 2019 season.^[37] The XFL rented the Dome for $800,000 per season (a $300,000 flat fee plus $100,000 for each game) in exchange for keeping all of the revenue from ticket sales; the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission keeps concession and parking revenue.^[38] As part of the agreement to return in 2023, the XFL signed a three-year lease on the Dome with similar terms to its 2020 lease.^[39] For XFL games, the Dome has a reduced capacity, similar to the San Antonio Brahmas use of the Alamodome and the Orlando Guardians at Camping World Stadium.^[40] The terms of the lease offer a per-ticket rebate if a sufficient number of tickets are sold in a given game, the proceeds from which covered the majority of the XFL's cost to rent the facility.^[41] After two consecutive sellouts of the lower bowl, city officials began planning to open up some sections of the upper decks to accommodate more fans while still maintaining the up-close intimate atmosphere the league seeks.^[42] This carried over into the 2023 season, with an estimated 35,000 tickets sold for the team's March 11 home opener and the upper decks of the dome being opened to accommodate the high demand.^[43] The game drew an XFL record 38,310 attendance, eclipsing the previous record St. Louis set in 2020 and record of 38,253 set by the San Francisco Demons of the original XFL in 2001.^[44] Season ticket sales remained robust heading into the 2024 season as the team opened up more seating in the middle decks of the stadium to season ticket sales.^[45] Such was the Battlehawks' strength in ticket sales that the UFL gave the Battlehawks an extra home game for the 2025 UFL season, with what would have been the team's in-conference away game against the San Antonio Brahmas moved to St. Louis due to schedule conflicts at San Antonio's home stadium, the Alamodome.^[46][47]

The Battlehawks lead the league in followers on Twitter, Instagram, and in fan attendance.^[48][49] The St. Louis media market led the nation in television viewership for the opening week, posting a 7.4 Nielsen rating for the Battlehawks' first game.^[50] Thousands of fans could be heard chanting “Kroenke sucks!” during the first Battlehawks home game, in reference to Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke who controversially moved the St. Louis Rams back to Los Angeles, California following the 2015 NFL season.

In February 2026, incoming UFL co-owner Mike Repole cast doubt on the Battlehawks' future in the Dome, echoing previous statements about not being the "right environment" that he previously made in revoking the San Antonio Brahmas' lease on the Alamodome and his longstanding preference for soccer-specific stadiums; he stated that he had begun "preliminary" discussions with Energizer Park to move the team there.^[36] This proposal was opposed by coach Ricky Proehl, who noted that the Dome's extensive parking space provided an ideal tailgating atmosphere that Energizer Park did not and that Proehl had a target of 40,000 fans per game for 2026 to prevent the change in stadiums from occurring.^[36]