OPINION: Mike Repole needs to leave the Battlehawks alone

An article published Monday on Litehouse Media already has me fired up, and I’ve barely started my work week. Why exactly? Mike Repole, the United Football League (UFL)’s newest investor, recently floated an idea to relocate the St. Louis Battlehawks from its current home at The Dome at America’s Center.

St. Louis is already a cornerstone market

The rationale, as Litehouse Media editor-in-chief Mick Lite reported, was to “enhance the league’s atmosphere by prioritizing smaller, more intimate venues that foster sold-out crowds and high-energy environments.”

The billionaire founder of Vitamin Water and BodyArmor joined the league’s ownership last year and has been taking charge of business operations. One of the key tenets in elevating spring football is to keep St. Louis as a cornerstone market.

Tell us something that we don’t already know. St. Louis has been a cornerstone market since the former XFL was revived in 2020. They topped all other markets in the league in ticket sales and attendance in 2020 and 2023. That mark still held when the XFL and the United States Football League (or USFL) merged after the 2023 season to form the UFL, with the Battlehawks leading all markets in the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

Repole’s Energizer Park idea and why it’s a bad idea

Repole floated the idea of moving the Battlehawks to Energizer Park (formerly known as CITYPARK), home of MLS side St. Louis CITY SC.

In the 2024 season, the Battlehawks averaged 34,365 in attendance at their home games at “The Battledome.” It set a record attendance of 40,317 in its April 6, 2024 game against the Arlington Renegades. That was only a 2.1% drop versus the 2023 season.

The 2025 average was 29,537, with its highest attendance game being their Week 2 matchup against the Renegades. The next highest attendance that season was in its Week 5 game against the Michigan Panthers. Overall, it was a 14% versus the previous season.

A lot of the attendance issues lie with conflicting schedules with the St. Louis Cardinals, the St. Louis Blues, CITY SC, and collegiate sports within the greater metropolitan region.

Why a smaller venue makes no sense for Battlehawks fans

But does that really justify a relocation to a significantly smaller venue? I don’t think so.

Let’s just say the same number of people attended Battlehawks home games this season. Energizer Park, which is 1.6 miles from The Dome, would not be able to accommodate 29,000+ because the facility is capped off at 22,500. 6,500 fans would be displaced and forced to watch the game elsewhere. Is that even good business? I don’t think so.

In other words, Repole doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. He calls fighting over 22,500 seats “a better atmosphere?” Puhleeze.

There is no better atmosphere than inside The Battledome. It would be better if the management team would actually open up the entire upper level and properly staff it so that the entire 67,000-seat facility could be booming.

UFL & Repole: Don’t fix what isn’t broken in St. Louis

While 22,500 packed into a soccer stadium is all good and well for professional, collegiate, and high school soccer, I don’t think it would translate well for a hardcore football fan base that’s gotten screwed out of two professional football teams – the Cardinals, which relocated to the Gateway City from Chicago before later relocating to Phoenix; and the Rams, which relocated to St. Louis from Los Angeles by the late Georgia Frontiere before current owner Stan Kroenke relocated the team back to the Los Angeles greater metropolitan area.

If it ain’t broke in St. Louis, there’s no need to fix it. Leave the Battlehawks where they are in a venue where they can grow. Don’t relegate them to a lesser facility where fans have to fight to get tickets, and local and regional media are forced to create pool teams because of limited media space in the Energizer Park media box.

Ambush Sports Network ran OPINION: Mike Repole needs to leave the Battlehawks alone earlier today (February 23, 2026).

Jake Leonard, Executive Editor-In-Chief

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Jake Leonard, a broadcast media and journalism veteran, is the editor-in-chief of Heartland Newsfeed. Leonard is also GM and program director of Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network, wrestling editor and contributing writer for Ambush Sports, a contributing writer for My Sports Vote and Midwest Sports Network, and a former contributor to Bleacher Report and Overtime Heroics. He resides at home in Nokomis, Ill. with his dog Buster.

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