ST. LOUIS — After nearly five years, there will finally be a home professional football game at The Dome at America's Center.
You could say they've got the best selling merchandise of any team, sold out the lower bowl of the dome and have one of the biggest followings of any XFL franchise at this point.
All of those statements about St. Louis BattleHawks would be true, but that doesn't surprise the nearly 30,000 fans expected to pack The Dome Sunday afternoon.
You could say they do it for their love of the game.
“It's awesome it's our first homegrown team, I'm excited, I'm down, I'm all in. Ka-Kaw,” said one fan.
Or their hatred of the man who's name shall not be said in front of former Rams fans now proudly wearing BattleHawk blue.
“I just want to tell him to eat it," another fan added.
And with a sold-out crowd expected for opening day fans are proving Stan Kroenke wrong showing St. Louis is nothing short of a football city.
“The city has been through a lot with football and to have that homegrown football league for the first time you can just see how they embrace it and why it's so important," said America’s Center General Manager Matthew Dewey.
As crews are busy preparing the field and the stands for more than 27,000 people Sunday, they’re thinking about all the fans who’ve supported the BattleHawks up to this point.
“Oh man I think it's great, it looks like it's taking off and I mean we're going to have the most fans in the stands so what more could you ask for in St. Louis," said another BattleHawks fan.
Hoping the BattleHawks will help prove once and for all, St. Louis is definitely a football town.
"Oh absolutely, I think it's phenomenal I think it's great that we got that back and I can see a lot of people being fans just to be spiteful of Kroenke's message on why they left," another fan added.
The game kicks off here at the dome Sunday at 2 p.m.
But there's going to be plenty to do before that.
The official tailgate starts at 11 on the east side of the dome and gates open at 12:30.