Looks like residents of St. Louis are still a little salty about their NFL team leaving town, because they are full throttle behind the city’s newest XFL football team: the St. Louis Battlehawks.
This weekend marks Week 4 of the XFL 3.0 (previous installments in 2001 and 2020) season, and also finally brings the Battlehawks off the road for their first home game of the season. The Battlehawks were a part of the 2020 version of the XFL, and before the season was suspended because of COVID-19, the Blue and Grey uniformed team was soaring to high attendance numbers.
Fast forward to this year’s edition of the XFL, and the fans in St. Louis are still just as excited for football in their city. Based on single-game tickets and season tickets already purchased for Sunday’s matchup between the Battlehawks and the Arlington Renegades, attendance numbers are expected to exceed over 30,000 fans.
The Battlehawks are expecting AT LEAST 30,000 fans for the home opener.
The total attendance last week across the league was 45,564, with the highest number in D.C. with 16,212.
STL set the XFL record with 29,554 fans in their first year. That record has 2 days left #KaKaw pic.twitter.com/RQxsEdc7Ok
— Gateway Grinders (@gatewaygrinders) March 10, 2023
Though the newest version of the “X-treme Football League” looks promising with TV partnerships (ESPN & FX) and decent ratings, attendance of the actual games across the league leaves room for improvement. That is why the projected attendance for Battlehawks’ first home game is so eye opening.
Total attendance for the entire league last week (four games each week) was 45,546 fans. The St. Louis Battlehawks are opening up the 400 level of their stadium, nicknamed the BattleDome, and might have a realistic shot of breaking the entire league’s attendance on their own.
The stadium, which formerly housed the St. Louis Rams NFL franchise, has a capacity of over 80,000 seats. A sell-out crowd might be out of a reach, but a fanbase of BattleHawk fanatics will do their best to fill up the Dome. Co-owner of the league, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, played a large part in reviving and funding the return of the XFL. He went to Twitter to share his excitement for the football team in St. Louis:
This is crazy… our @XFLBattlehawks are FINALLY playing their first home game this coming weekend in St Louis…
We’re anticipating a crowd of over 30,000 fans 🔥🔥🔥 🏟️
Amazing support. THANK YOU XFL fans! We’re building for the long haul, not one and done. #opportunity #xfl https://t.co/gR9ezMlRbb— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) March 7, 2023
So are the fans of the St. Louis Battlehawks supporting the team out of spite for the Rams leaving for Los Angeles? Or are they just happy to support another successful St. Louis sports team?
They certainly have strong fanbases for their Major League Baseball (St. Louis Cardinals) and National Hockey League (St. Louis Blues) teams. With the addition of a Major League Soccer (St. Louis S.C.) and XFL team this year, it looks like the Gateway City is eager and ready to re-establish themselves as a booming, competitive sports town.
7 years after Kroenke stated that “St. Louis has fallen so far behind economically that it can no longer support 3 professional sports teams” it will be supporting 4.
70k fans outside of an MLS stadium that only holds 22k and 40k in attendance for the Battlehawks home opener https://t.co/pMPVwLH3om
— Thomas Welch (@twelcher15) March 10, 2023
If you are a fan of football and haven’t given the XFL a shot yet, take advantage of a rowdy Battlehawks crowd and tune in on Sunday at 4 EST on ESPN 2 (or ESPN+) and witness the return of pro football to St. Louis.
Plus, they easily have the best team name in the XFL. How can you get better than a Battlehawk? Don’t ask what a Battlehawk is, just jump in head first like the rest of the country. Like the team likes to say, Kaw-Kaw is the Law.
big if true https://t.co/GhrvdXRFGm
— St. Louis Battlehawks (@XFLBattlehawks) March 1, 2023
