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.[2] 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.[3] The team name and logo were revealed on August 21, 2019, as well as the team’s uniforms on December 3, 2019.[4]
On October 15, 2019, The Battlehawks announced their first player in team history, being assigned former Ole Miss Rebels Quarterback Jordan Ta'amu.[5]
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 terminated.[6]
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.[7][8] 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.[9] On July 24, 2022, the return of a St. Louis XFL franchise was confirmed, as well as the hiring of Anthony Becht.[10] On October 31, 2022, the XFL officially announced that the Battlehawks name would be returning, with the logo having slight alterations.
The Battlehawks finished tied for second place in their division in the 2023 regular season with the Seattle Sea Dragons with a 7–3 record. The Sea Dragons were granted the playoff position after several rounds of tiebreakers[11] (and the lack of any wild card, at-large or crossover process, which ensured the eventual champion Arlington Renegades, three games behind St. Louis in overall league standings, got into the playoffs instead). In an offseason showcase in St. Louis, league president Russ Brandon indicated that the Battlehawks would continue in St. Louis "obviously [...] for the very long haul."[11]United States Football League president Daryl Johnston noted that St. Louis would be an ideal team to keep in a merger with the league he presided over, not only for its strong fan support (which he noted was far above and beyond any in the USFL) but because of its central location, making travel expenses affordable.[12]
In September 2023, Axios reported that the XFL was in advanced talks with the USFL to merge the two leagues prior to the start of their 2024 seasons.[13] On September 28, 2023, the XFL and USFL announced their intent to merge with details surrounding the merger to be announced at a later date.[14] The merger would also require regulatory approval.[15] In October 2023 the XFL filed a trademark application for the name "United Football League".[16] On November 30, 2023, Garcia announced via her Instagram page that the leagues had received regulatory approval for the merger and were finalizing plans for a "combined season" to begin March 30, 2024.[17] The merger was made official on December 31, 2023.[18]
The Battlehawks have a rivalry against the DC Defenders.[19] The Defenders have won three of the four matchups between the two teams, every game except for one has been decided by one possession and has determined who is the top team in the division at that point in the season.
At the end of their first meeting of the 2023 season, three players were ejected after a brawl broke out.[20] A week later, the Battlehawks' quarterback, A. J. McCarron, called their competition the "first XFL rivalry."[21]
Birmingham Stallions
With the merger of the XFL and USFL, the Battlehawks and Birmingham Stallions emerged as rivals, both because each had reached the top of their division at the time of their Week 7 meeting in the 2024 UFL season and because both of the Battlehawks' quarterbacks, Alabama alumnus McCarron and Troy alumnus Brandon Silvers, played college and high school football in the state of Alabama.[22][23]
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,[25] as the owners of the Cardinals and Rams moved to other markets, with the Cardinals saying that the city and county governments of St. Louis declined to provide an adequate new stadium and the Rams saying in a latter that 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.
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.[28] 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.[29] 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.[30] 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.[31] 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.[32] 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.[33] 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.[34] 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.[35] 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.[36] 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.[37][38]
The Battlehawks lead the league in followers on Twitter, Instagram, and in fan attendance.[39][40] 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.[41] 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.
Through week 5 of the 2024 season, the Battlehawks have hosted just 9 home games. However, 8 of those 9 games all rank in the top 9 for attendance in XFL/UFL history. The lone exception is the 2020 Seattle Dragon's week 2 home game. Additionally, the Battlehawks also hold the top 8 spots in most attended XFL/UFL games.
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