Stars Struck With Financial Problems

A short report on NBC affiliate KNWA’s 10 p.m. newscast in early May caught the interest of our Whispers staff.

Sports anchor Bo Mattingly mentioned offhandedly that the Arkansas Stars, Northwest Arkansas’ National Indoor Football League team, might be facing some “financial problems.” Mattingly didn’t cite a source and didn’t elaborate beyond saying that some players had not been paid in a timely manner.

Katona Hargrave, co-owner of the Stars, said on May 10 that the report was not true — not really.

Hargrave said every new business (in this case a sports team) has some bumps in the road.

The team has about $2,000 invested in each player and their equipment, she said, so it holds paychecks to make sure the players “show up at the next game.”

Then on May 14, a small item appeared in the Northwest Arkansas Times’ sports page that said the Stars would have new ownership. Apparently all Stars games have been cancelled until further notice.

Hargrave, her husband Ron and another investor paid $500,000 in franchise fees to get the Stars off the ground. As of late February, the team said it had between $50,000 and $70,000 in paid sponsorships. At that time the team was also contracted to pay $49,000 in sublease fees to play the games at the Randal Tyson Track Center.

As of press time, our telephone calls to Hargrave and several other team officials had not been returned.