The St. Louis Battlehawks are an American Football team based in St. Louis, Missouri that play with 7 other teams that were part of the incarnation of the 2020 incarnation XFL. The Battlehawks play their home games at The Dome at America's Center. The team was coached by former Cincinatti Bengals head coach Jonathan Hayes.
St. Louis was one of 8 other teams along with Tampa Bay, Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Dallas, New York, & Houston as a part of the first inaugural cities of the incarnation of the XFL.
History[]
McMahon Era (2020)[]
On December 5, 2018, St. Louis was announced as one of eight cities that would join the newly reformed XFL, as well as Seattle, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, DC, Tampa Bay, and Dallas.[1] On April 18, 2019, the team hired Jonathan Hayes, who most recently was tight ends coach for the Cincinnati Bengals, as their first head coach. Hayes is an alumnus of the University of Iowa.[2] The team name and logo were revealed on August 21, 2019, as well as the team’s uniforms on December 3, 2019.[3]
On October 15, 2019, The BattleHawks announced their first player in team history, being assigned former Ole Miss Rebels Quarterback Jordan Ta'amu.[4]
The BattleHawks won their first game in team history on February 8, 2020, defeating the Dallas Renegades 15-9. On March 12, 2020, The XFL announced that the remainder of the 2020 XFL season had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team finished with a 3-2 record. On April 10, 2020, The XFL Suspended operations, with all employees, players and staff would be terminated.[5]
Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia Era (2023–present)[]
On August 3, 2020, it was reported that a consortium led by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Dany Garcia, and Gerry Cardinale (through Cardinale's fund RedBird Capital Partners) purchased the XFL for $15 million just hours before an auction could take place; the purchase received court approval on August 7, 2020.[6][7] The XFL hired Anthony Becht as a Head Coach on April 13, 2022, with the expectation that he would be coaching the St. Louis team.[8] On July 24, 2022, the return of a St. Louis XFL franchise was confirmed, as well as the hiring of Anthony Becht.[9] On October 31, 2022, The XFL officially announced that the BattleHawks name would be returning, with the logo having slight alterations.
Market overview[]
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 Football 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,[10] as the owners of both the Cardinals and Rams moved to new markets, saying that the city and county governments of St. Louis declined to provide an adequate new stadium; the latter also said the Dome at America's Center was unacceptable. (The Dome was the last NFL stadium to be built with a fully opaque and fixed roof, which led to a lack of ambient light and, coupled with the Rams' decision to switch to a darker uniform color palette in the early 2000s, resulted in one of the darkest stadium environments in the NFL.) As St. Louis was one of the most recent cities to lose an NFL team, with acceptable facilities by XFL standards, the area was seen as a good choice.
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.
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 will share the pro sports market with Major League Soccer's newest expansion team St. Louis City SC and the always well supported Major League Baseball St. Louis Cardinals.
The Dome at America's Center was built for the Rams and as an addition to the adjoining St. Louis Convention Center. After the Rams left, 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.[11] 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 will keep concession and parking revenue.[12] 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.[13] For XFL games, the Dome has a reduced capacity, similar to the former San Antonio Commanders use of the Alamodome and the earlier XFL's Orlando Rage at the Citrus Bowl, reducing the stadium's capacity to around 28,000.[14] 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.[15]
The BattleHawks lead the league in followers on Twitter, Instagram, and in fan attendance.[16][17] 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.[18] Fans often chanted “Kroenke Sucks” to express distaste for the former owner of the St. Louis Rams, who controversially returned the team to Los Angeles, California following the 2015 NFL season.
Team Roster[]
| St. Louis BattleHawks current roster | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Quarterbacks
Running Backs
Wide Receivers
Tight Ends
Offensive Linemen
|
Defensive Linemen
Linebackers
Defensive Backs
|
Special Teams
Reserves
Rookies in italics → More rosters → Edit | |||
Team Theme Song[]
St. Louis BattleHawks Theme Song Taking Flight
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