In the words of Michael Scott, oh my God it’s happening. Today the St. Louis BattleHawks announced that they would be opening the upper deck of the dome in preparation for their third home game against the Los Angeles Wildcats on March 21st. This means a few things for not only St. Louis fans, but also the BattleHawks organization and the XFL as a whole.
The Fans:
It means the organization is listening. I alluded to this in my last post, but the BattleHawk front office has made it a point since the season began to listen to fan concerns and criticism. Now they may have made small changes to start, but this was by far the most sought after change on the wish list.
Not since the St. Louis Rams occupied the then-named Edward Jones dome have fans had the opportunity to show their support for the home squad in such a way. And with the early season success, the BattleHawks have shown, the fans who have packed the lower bowl for the last two weeks have the table set to more than double the turnout just a few short weeks.
As a St. Louis native, it’s almost impossible not to be excited for what’s to come because if there is one thing this city loves to do, it is to show how sport-crazed their fans are on a national stage. All you have to do is look to the run the St. Louis Blues went on during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Maybe it’s a bit of a little brother complex that the locals have with other midwest cities like Chicago or Nashville, but St. Louis fans always look to prove how die-hard they are and they get yet another opportunity to do so on March 21st.
The Organization
They have the opportunity to solidify themselves as the most viable franchise in the early going of the XFL. Now that sort of thing can be subjective depending on what sort of metrics you want to look at to defend your case. But one thing cannot be debated. If you want to go on pure fan support and attendance, St. Louis has the chance to obliterate the competition in that regard.
Will they sell out the whole nearly 67,000 seat dome? That would be a massive ask given the fact that week 1 and 2 attendance combined only equaled up to 57,081. But to be fair, both games were filled to top of the lower bowl with rabid new fans eager to see a new team getting the dome rocking.
Another thing the organization could look at as a reason to fill the dome would be the ticket prices. Being the new show in town, most tickets were resold on third party sites and had prices jacked up through the roof.
BattleHawks president Kurt Hunzeker announced today that upper deck tickets were going to be starting at a very agreeable $15 a pop. With prices being this low and a few weeks to go before the actual game, I wouldn’t put it past a lot of fans to put those fresh paychecks to use and pack the dome to its full potential.
The XFL
The city of St. Louis is making good on the XFL investing in them. They found themselves a perfect mix of a fan base not too far removed from having a team of their own, but distanced themselves enough that fans have room in their hearts to embrace a brand new product. With BattleHawks gear being on back-order on the XFL website and tickets getting snatched off of ticketmaster as soon as they go up for sale, St. Louis has shown early signs of having the staying power that Oliver Luck has been looking for.
If I were an XFL executive I would be keeping a sharp eye out for the turnout on March 21st. If St. Louis has a good showing, maybe the XFL can find themselves looking into other mid-level markets to put a team in. I’m sure St. Louis was an easier bet than most with the football history in this town, but other cities may look at how the league invested in a smaller market and end up getting some big ideas.
Richard Hart
March 5, 2020 at 1:43 am
We need a team in Oklahoma
stat
There are two thing we love here, wrestling and football.
Scott Hescht
March 5, 2020 at 11:54 am
Put a team in San Antonio/Auston area and watch the same thing happen. They’ve been an overlooked and underrated NFL market and they loved their team in the AAF before it was cut short.