Columbus Stars

{{for|the minor league baseball team that played in 1885|Columbus Stars (baseball)}}

{{more footnotes needed|date=June 2018}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}

{{Infobox ice hockey team

| current =

| text_color = navy

| bg_color = background:#FFFFFF; border-top:red 5px solid; border-bottom:navy 5px solid;

| team = Columbus Stars

| logo = Columbusstars.png

| logosize = 180px

| city = Columbus, Ohio

| league = United Hockey League

| conference =

| division = Eastern Division

| founded = 2003

| arena = Ohio Expo Center Coliseum

| colors = Navy, red, white
{{color box|navy}} {{color box|red}} {{color box|white}}

| owner = Joe Milano Jr

| coach =

| GM =

| media =

| affiliates =

| name1 = Columbus Stars

| dates1 = 2003–2004

|reg_season_titles =

|division_titles =

|conf_titles =

}}

The Columbus Stars were a minor professional ice hockey team that was a brief member of the United Hockey League (UHL). The team folded before the midway point of 2003–04 season, in which the Stars had 21 home games drawing an average of only 973 people per game,{{Cite web |title=Columbus Stars hockey team [UHL] statistics and history at hockeydb.com |url=https://www.hockeydb.com/stte/columbus-stars-5325.html |access-date= |website=HockeyDB}} 2,000 less than the UHL average. They played their home games at the Ohio Expo Center Coliseum which had a capacity of 5,676. Despite leading the Eastern Conference of the UHL at the time of its demise, the team's final game had an attendance of only 732.{{cite news |date=January 10, 2004 |title=Columbus Stars cease operation |newspaper=Portsmouth Daily Times |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=msxFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EtEMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6747,1196460&dq=columbus-stars&hl=en |accessdate=January 18, 2011 |via=Google News}} The team folded on January 9, 2004.{{Cite web |date=January 9, 2004 |title=It Was In The Stars All Along |url=http://www.minorleaguenews.com/hockey/uhl/features/articles2004/010904.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515200100/http://www.minorleaguenews.com/hockey/uhl/features/articles2004/010904.html |archive-date=May 15, 2008 |access-date=May 15, 2008 |website=Minor League News}}

The team was owned by Joe Milano Jr, a local Columbus restaurateur. The stars gained attention after Rescue Me actor Denis Leary was offered a one-game contract to play with the team. He would have been paid the standard one-game salary for a UHL player ($300) and an undisclosed percentage of the ticket sales from the game would have been donated to his charity, Leary Firefighters Foundation.{{cite news |date=December 15, 2003 |title=Comic relief : Denis Leary offered one-game minor league hockey deal |newspaper=Sports Illustrated |publisher=CNN |agency=Associated Press |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/hockey/nhl/12/15/dennis.leary.contract.ap/index.html |url-status=dead |accessdate=January 18, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031218092624/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/hockey/nhl/12/15/dennis.leary.contract.ap/index.html |archive-date=December 18, 2003}}