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.

[4] On October 15, 2019, The Battlehawks announced their first player in team history, being assigned former Ole Miss Rebels Quarterback Jordan Ta'amu.

[15] 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.

"[20] 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.

There is a significant negative sentiment against the NFL in St. Louis,[24] 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.

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, and since 2023 with the return of the Battlehawks, the Tigers have played occasional home games at the Dome,[25] sharing an aging roll-away turf surface with the Battlehawks that proved to be unsightly when relined for the Tigers' use.

[29] 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.

[30] 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.

[31] 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.

[35] 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.

[38][39] 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.