The XFL will give it another try beginning early in 2020 and St. Louis appears to be in the mix.
Tuesday evening, KSDK Channel 5 reported that St. Louis will have a team that will play some of its home games at the Dome at America's Center.
The Rams' last game at the then-Edward Jones Dome was a 31-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Dec. 17, 2015.
The eight-team XFL league, owned by Vince McMahon's Alpha Entertainment, will feature a 10-game schedule. The first version on McMahon's XFL in 2001 lasted just one season.
McMahon announced plans for the new XFL in January. The league introduced former NFL quarterback Oliver Luck as commissioner and CEO in June. The father of Indianapolis Colts QB Andrew Luck, Oliver played for the Houston Oilers from 1982-86 and has held a variety of positions in sports, including athletics director at West Virginia University, his alma mater, an executive with the NCAA and president and general manager of Major League Soccer's Houston Dynamo.
On Nov. 8, Doug Whaley, who worked from 2013-2017 as GM of the Buffalo Bills, was hired by the XFL to serve as senior vice president of football operations.
Glory days at the Dome
National media bought into the Stan Kroenke narrative and routinely referred to the 20-year-old Edward Jones Dome as "aging." Or worse. A sports columnist in Kansas City, where the NFL team plays in its own drab concrete bowl, wrote late last year that the Dome is "widely considered a dump."
Even on the pages of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and this website, "The Ed" has been described as sterile, dismal and obsolete. What's more, the venue's landlord -- the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission -- announced last month that it's contemplating demolition of the Dome.
Call it what you will, or in the CVC's case, do with it what you will. But St. Louis sports fans -- even the ones who agree with the negative perceptions of the facility -- will retain memories of spectacular events and performances that played out in the city-block-long-and-wide downtown stadium.
Here's a look back at some of the unforgettable sports moments -- with a bow at the end to the non-sporting event that easily drew the largest crowd of spectators in Dome history:
Nov. 12, 1995: First game in the Dome
Excerpts from stories by Post-Dispatch football writer Jim Thomas on the Rams' 28-17 victory over Carolina, and the early seasons at the Dome:
The Rams certainly got a rise out of the new Trans World Dome, filled to the brim with 65,598 fans -- a record for a professional sporting event in St. Louis.
"It was scary coming out, "defensive end D'Marco Farr said. "The lights and the smoke. I forgot we were home for a minute."
A couple of things stuck out to the Rams about those early years in the Dome:
--How hard the original surface was.
--And how loud the crowd was.
The noise and adoration that showered down from the stands more than made up for the burns.
"I thought Busch Stadium was loud," wide receiver Isaac Bruce said, laughing. "The new dome was pretty loud. I think just the way that noise hit the roof and came back down. Just being in the stadium and hearing the noise the crowd made. And they were cheering for us."
Oct. 10, 1999: New Rams punish 49ers
Rams make their mark on all-time St. Louis team
From the Post-Dispatch game story by Jim Thomas:
The report was filed shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday to the Missing Persons Bureau. By now, the search party will be out in full force ... looking for the Same Old Rams.
You know, those gridiron sadsacks who lost over and over and over again to the San Francisco 49ers. Seventeen straight times before Sunday's rousing 42-20 Rams victory. Where are the Same Old Rams?
"You know what? I don't even want to hear that phrase, " said defensive end Kevin Carter, who had been 0 for 8. "Because after a while, the Same Old Rams are going to be the ones in the playoffs."
One last time: Where are the Same Old Rams?
"It's kind of a flip of the circumstances, " said wide receiver Isaac Bruce, who had been 0 for 8. "Because we'd always be losing and get upset and want to fight. And that's kind of what the 49ers did."
In this upside-down, topsy-turvy NFL season, the Rams finally turned the 49ers' on their heads.
Quarterback Kurt Warner continued his amazing run, throwing for 323 yards and five touchdowns. Bruce, meanwhile, turned the 49ers' defense into the 'Frisco Melt, toasting their secondary with a franchise record-tying four touchdown receptions.
"Isaac Bruce, if he isn't the best receiver in the National Football League, he's right with the group, " Vermeil said.
Jan. 16, 2000: Rams-Vikings playoff game
RAMS 49, VIKINGS 37
The Rams hadn't been in a playoff game in 10 years when they took the field at the Trans World Dome against the Vikings. A lot of people wondered if the team, which had gone from 4-12 to 13-3 in one season, was for real. On the Rams' first play from scrimmage, Kurt Warner threw a 77-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce.
The Rams trailed 17-14 at halftime, but Tony Horne returned the second-half kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown as the Rams rolled off 35 consecutive points. Warner completed 27 of 33 passes for 391 yards and five touchdowns. In all, the Rams set 25 team or individual records in the game. "Well, so much for not having any playoff experience, " coach Dick Vermeil said.
Jan. 23, 2000: NFC championship
RAMS 11, BUCCANEERS 6
The "Greatest Show On Turf" Rams trailed 6-5 at the start of the fourth quarter before Kurt Warner, who threw three interceptions, completed a 30-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Proehl with 4:44 to play. It was the first TD catch of the season for Proehl, who outfought a Bucs defender in the end zone for the grab.
Tampa Bay then drove to the Rams 22 with 1:25 to play and the Rams benefited from a replay review, which nullified a key Bucs' gain (two months later, the NFL changed the rule and the play would have been ruled a catch). Two plays later, on fourth down, a pass into the end zone was incomplete. The Rams were going to the Super Bowl.
Jan. 27, 2002: NFC Championship
RAMS 29, EAGLES 24
The Rams won their fourth consecutive playoff game at the Dome and their second NFC title in three years, but it wasn't easy. They trailed 17-13 at halftime before scoring 16 consecutive points -- including two touchdowns by Marshall Faulk -- to take a 29-17 lead. The Eagles cut the lead to five points and had a chance to win when, on fourth down from the Philadelphia 48 with 1:47 to go, Aeneas Williams intercepted a Donovan McNabb pass (above) to seal the victory. "It was a championship heavyweight bout -- that's what it amounted to, " Rams coach Mike Martz said.
Dec. 7, 1996: Big 12 football championship
The first Big 12 Conference football championship was a classic. Too bad that only seven actual St. Louisans purchased tickets to this colorful event, dominated by 60,000 Nebraska fans and one shaking-and-baking Texas quarterback named James Brown.
Texas pulled off a rollicking 37-27 upset, roping Nebraska hard to the floor of the TWA Dome. Dour Nebraska coach Tom Osborne, long opposed to the concept of playing a conference title game, would have preferred a fishing trip this weekend. And his mildly interested Cornhuskers reflected that. Favored by three touchdowns, No. 3-ranked Nebraska gave up 503 total yards and 22 first downs. And Texas only controlled the football for 20 minutes of game clock. The Cornhuskers allowed an astounding average of 25 yards per minute and were glowing from the nuking.
High Noon Border Clash
On one sensational afternoon in the shadows of the Gateway Arch, Mizzou and Illinois -- two traditionally lukewarm programs begging for some authentic flavor of their own -- gave us something that felt very much like, well, the Big Time. Before high noon, the Edward Jones Dome was in the eye of a perfect college football storm, full of tailgating, impromptu pep rallies and a genuine bowl-game atmosphere.
The pomp and pageantry turned out to be the perfect prelude to a delightful, if totally inartistic football game, as Missouri held off Illinois 40-34 in the revival of the Arch Rivalry.
The 64,000 folks who crowded into the Dome spent most of the afternoon riding high one minute, sinking low the next, then bobbing right back up and down on these unpredictable emotional slaloms. "We could hear it too, " laughed Tigers wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, "(The noise) was over here, then it was over there, then it was back over here depending on which team was making plays. But isn't that what rivalry games are all about?"
Aug. 10, 2013: Ronaldo puts on a show
Of the entire 90 minutes of soccer played at the Edward Jones Dome in the match between Real Madrid and Inter Milan, there was one moment that, for just about everybody there, made it all worthwhile.
In the 38th minute, Real Madrid midfielder Casemiro sent a perfect pass through the Inter defense. Cristiano Ronaldo, the man most everyone had come to see, ran on to the ball and in stride hit it from the top of the 18-yard box with his right foot across his body and into the far side of the net.
That was what everyone wanted, a masterful goal by one of the greatest players in the game today. The crowd of 54,184 went wild with the goal. Ronaldo, who in addition to being a sublime talent is also an accomplished showman, ran over to the end line, faced the stands and acknowledged the fans with a wave of both arms in front of him, as if to say, "Ta-da."
Monster trucks take over Dome floor
The Dome has been a regular stop for monster trucks competition and the venue often is packed for the events. Here's an excerpt from a Kathleen Nelson story previewing the "Monster Jam" competition at the Dome in 1998. St. Louis is the cradle of monster trucks, which perhaps explains why our town was chosen as the site of the Monster Jam series finale in 1998.
The sport sprouted out of St. Louisan Bob Chandler's sense of adventure. Chandler souped up his Ford 250 4X4 in 1974 so he could enjoy a little off-road fun. Then, one day, Chandler drove the big boy to his 4X4 parts store in North County, where it attracted a lot of attention -- and customers. He then got the idea to use the car to market the store by entering and outmuscling the tractors in pulls.
Pope John Paul II visits the Dome
More than 100,000 worshippers participated in the Mass with Pope John Paul II at the Trans World Dome on Wednesday January 27, 1999.