WQAD-TV has filed an arbitration suit against the Quad City Mallards and their former owners.

The ABC affiliate in Moline alleges the minor league professional hockey team owes it nearly $13,000 for television advertisements that were broadcast during 2011.

The suit, filed Thursday in Rock Island County Circuit Court, claims the team and former owners John Pritchett and John Prutch failed to pay approximately $12,910 to the media outlet for ads that ran between January and December 2011.

"It was a large number of commercials," said WQAD's attorney, Arthur J. Inman."They believe they've done all they can and that there is no alternative but to file suit."

Mr. Inman said WQAD went to exhaustive efforts, including employing a collections agency, to persuade the hockey team to pay the debt.According to Mr. Inman, the first court hearing on the matter is expected to be scheduled in January.

Representatives from the Mallards could not be reached for comment Monday.

A separate lawsuit was filed Sept. 24 against the hockey team by Destroyer Merchandising Co.

The firm, which previously sold Mallards-affiliated products at the i wireless Center in Moline, claimed the team owed the company more than $50,000 for services and promotional products.

On Oct. 23, the Central Hockey League took over the the club for the 2012-2013 season when an unnamed owner walked away after buying the Mallards from Club 9 Sports on Sept. 2.

Ownership issues forced the Mallards to delay the start of training camp by nine days, cancel a pair of exhibition games and postpone their season-opener.