XFL unveils team names ahead of latest reboot (2024)

The St. Louis Battlehawks are back, but alas the clever nod to the St. Louis area code is no longer in their logo. It’s one of the branding and name changes the new eight-team XFL unveiled Monday morning. Here’s what you need to know:

• The new XFL, the third iteration, is releasing its eight-team names and logos, four months before the scheduled Feb. 18, 2023 kickoff.
• Three teams — the Houston Roughnecks, the DC Defenders, and the Battlehawks — fully keep the moniker from the 2020 league.
• The Dallas Renegades drop the big city’s name and adopt the suburban Arlington brand (the XFL is headquartered there).
• Other teams are: the San Antonio Brahmas, Orlando Guardians, Vegas Vipers and Seattle Sea Dragons.

The wait is finally over! Meet your eight #XFL2023 teams…

ARL @XFLRenegades
DC @XFLDefenders
HOU @XFLRoughnecks
ORL @XFLGuardians
SA @XFLBrahmas
SEA @XFLSeaDragons
STL @XFLBattlehawks
VEG @XFLVipers

Which team are you most excited for? pic.twitter.com/lvUCjoDiY3

— XFL (@XFL2023) October 31, 2022

Backstory

The XFL was first launched in 2001 by NBC and WWE as a counterweight to the NFL. Following some initial success, ratings plummeted and the league folded after one season (remember He Hate Me?). WWE boss Vince McMahon nearly two decades later relaunched the league, this time not as a rival to the NFL but as a niche spring football startup.

McMahon poured over $200 million into the league, and early returns were good. The play was solid and some markets, notably St. Louis and Seattle, attracted strong attendance and enthusiastic fans. But the timing proved unlucky because the pandemic struck five weeks into the inaugural season. The league closed and then ultimately filed for bankruptcy.

A group led by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, his business partner and ex-wife Dany Garcia, and RedBird Capital bought the league out of bankruptcy for $15 million, which included all the intellectual property like team names and colors. To keep costs down, XFL teams will all train in Arlington, Texas, and travel for game days (other than obviously the Arlington Renegades for home dates). The teams have local business operations but do not need to sustain the costs of training facilities and a big headquarters.

Why only one new team name?

This can only be seen as a nod to the solid work done by the 2020 version, which built its business operations over the preceding two years and in a short time period established a rapport with fans. In St. Louis, the Battlehawks quickly reached hallowed levels. It’s too bad the new XFL did away with the nod to the St. Louis area code though. In the 2020 logo, the two Ts in Battlehawks are connected at the top, forming the mathematical symbol for Pi, which starts with 314 — which is also St. Louis’ area code.

“We wanted to stay true to its history by keeping the name, but we refined the logo to deepen the connection to St. Louis’ aviation and military history, including a new stenciled font,” the XFL wrote in an email.

The league did not agree to an interview about the name decisions, such as why the handles Guardians and Vipers were recycled and moved to different cities. The Guardians name is shipped from New York, which is no longer in the league, to the now Orlando Guardians. Similarly, the Vipers name relocated from Tampa Bay to the now Vegas Vipers.

The only completely new name is the San Antonio Brahmas (referring to the type of cattle and not the Hindu god). Brahmas is a popular team name recreationally and with schools in San Antonio and is also a nickname of Johnson, often referenced as “the Brahma Bull” during his wrestling career. A tattoo of the animal on his arm also became his brand logo with Under Armour.

The only team name to fully drop out from the 2020 group is the Wildcats, the moniker for the then-Los Angeles team. The 2020 Seattle Dragons get tweaked and are now the Seattle Sea Dragons, a nod to the nearby Pacific. All the logos received modest to significant changes.

Does the XFL 3.0 have a chance?

With a broadcasting deal with ESPN and the deep pockets of RedBird, which is a prodigious sports investor with investments in Fenway Sports, Wasserman Media and ownership of two European soccer clubs, there is no reason to think the league will suffer the same fate as its predecessors and last a season or less. There is the rival Fox Sports-owed USFL, which will begin its second season in April 2023, testing the appetite for minor league football. There is also the question of what the goals are for the new XFL.

“There’s no need for a second NFL, however, there is a need for a developmental organization for NFL player development. … that relation to the NFL will touch on player development; the NFL doesn’t have a G League,” RedBird’s Gerry Cardinale said at an Axios conference last week.

Portraying the XFL as a needed developmental league for the NFL would undoubtedly come as news to the NFL. The XFL does have an agreement with the NFL to work on new rules and officiating. And it has a deal with the NFL Alumni Academy, an independent group that trains prospects to be ready for the low end of NFL rosters.

Those who are not chosen by an NFL team are now guaranteed a spot in an XFL training camp. But since the NFL shuttered NFL Europe in 2007 it has resisted creating another developmental league. A spokesman for Cardinale wrote in an email, “I think it is the spirit here. If the XFL serves that role, so be it. But a lead that is who we are isn’t right.”

Reports emerged earlier this year that the XFL is looking to raise money, to some a signal that it already needed help. But Cardinale, speaking after the Axios conference, said his fund is well-capitalized, and that the investor search is about potentially finding team owners. Currently, all eight teams are owned by the XFL.

Speaking to the Axios audience, Cardinale said he is convinced there is a space for spring football, despite all the previous failed attempts. “Football is one of our greatest exports as a country,” he said. The “Super Bowl ends, and ends the season in February, people in that period in the spring, February to May, people would still like to have adult-quality football.”

What’s next?

All eight teams have head coaches, but no players. A player draft is expected shortly, and tickets presumably should go on sale. Each team has only been taking deposits, but pricing information is coming. The Twitter handle @the_markcast, which airs a podcast on non-NFL football leagues, posted an email from the Sea Dragons showing ticket prices ranging from $20 to $95. That team will play at Lumen Field.

Required reading

• Can the XFL and USFL coexist or is a merger in the offing?
• XFL players to get pennies on the dollar for what they are owed
• Disney, ESPN reach exclusive multiyear deal to broadcast XFL games

(Top photo: Robert Hanashiro / USA Today)