COLUMN: Battlehawks, City SC transformed St. Louis sports scene

There's a good chance the St. Louis Battlehawks finish the regular season on Saturday with a win over the lowly Orlando Guardians and a 7-3 record.

There is an even greater chance that it won't be enough to make the playoffs due to the long list of tiebreakers that could've been avoided with a win over the Seattle Sea Dragons a week before.

Regardless of whether or not the Battlehawks make the XFL Playoffs, Saturday will be the final home game of the season, and it will be one to celebrate.

2023 will go down as the year St. Louis went from a two-team town to a four-team sports hub, and showed the nation through their two new teams just how strong the support is. The fans are the reason why an expansion MLS team can instantly vault itself into the realm of the elite.

"Great atmosphere, brilliant stadium, hats off to the people that put it all together," Minnesota United manager Adrien Heath said of City SC on April 2. "[City SC manager Bradley Carnell's] done a great job putting a really good group together. I think they've probably shown the blueprint of being an expansion team."

City SC's match with undefeated Cincinnati was delayed due to a tornado watch. As the skies turned green and the rain poured, thousands of fans were taking shelter around the stadium and filling the nearby pubs. A 7:30 p.m. start time was pushed all the way to 9:49 p.m., and yet, everyone was still there supporting the squad. They were rewarded with the biggest win in the young franchise's history, a 5-1 blowout win.

If a freaking tornado can't keep the St. Louis supporters away, nothing will.

The XFL is just over the finish line in terms of completing a regular season with no hiccups, and strong attendance with successful teams. This is a league that was a colossal failure in 2001 and was upended in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The league is proving its viability through the ownership led by chairwoman Dany Garcia and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

The Battlehawks have stood out as the market with over 38,000 fans at the Dome at America's Center.

“We love playing at home,” Battlehawks quarterback AJ McCarron said. “We need as many people as we can [Saturday], to come out here and affect the game, try to have an even bigger crowd, and be amped up."

There are two different ways to celebrate attendance. The Battlehawks play in the former home of the NFL's St. Louis Rams. The remnants of that franchise's fans made the XFL feel almost as big as the NFL. In Washington D.C., the XFL leading Defenders play their games inside the home of the MLS' D.C. United. To them, 18,684 is a sellout.

Only the Battlehawks and Sea Dragons play in NFL stadiums, yet the market still with an NFL team is the one with waning XFL attendance.

Obviously, the lowest teams in the XFL standings are also the lowest in attendance. While there's hope for Orlando in the future, assuming the team turns it around next season, the league failed Vegas when they put the Vipers in a minor league ballpark away from the strip. Unless you live in Las Vegas and can drive, it would cost about $50 just to Uber back and forth from the stadium to the strip.

San Antonio is where the XFL Championship Game is being held this season and the only time their games topped 20,000 was the opening week with the Battlehawks in town. An argument could be made that it should've been held at the Dome.

What has transpired in St. Louis is good news for the sports fans in Southeast Missouri, who have a variety of sports options, should they make the 100-minute drive up i55.