Charlotte Sting Team History
Sting Team Creations
The Charlotte Sting was one of the eight original WNBA franchises that began play in 1997. The Sting were then the sister team to the Charlotte Hornets. The Sting finished their first season with a 15-13 record and qualified for the first WNBA playoffs, but lost to eventual champions Houston Comets in the one-game semifinal.
End of the Charlotte Sting
On December 13, 2006, Bobcats Sports and Entertainment turned ownership of the team over to the league, citing low attendance in Charlotte (despite a new arena) and loss of revenue.
An investment group in Kansas City had an interest in moving the Sting to Kansas City.[1] The Sting were to play in the Sprint Center, which was due to open in the Fall of 2007. The city has not had an NBA team since the Kings’ move to Sacramento, California after the 1984–85 season.
After months of talk and deliberation between the league and the investors; the plans ultimately fell through. On January 3, 2007, the Bobcats announced that the fundraising effort by a group seeking to move the team to Kansas City had failed. The team folded immediately, and the players went to the other teams in the league via a dispersal draft.
The Charlotte Sting were a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, one of the league’s eight original teams. The team folded on January 3, 2007.
The Sting was originally the sister organization of the Charlotte Hornets, until that NBA team relocated to New Orleans in 2002. Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, purchased the team in January 2003, shortly after he was announced as the principal owner of an NBA expansion franchise that was later named the Charlotte Bobcats now known as the Charlotte Hornets as of 2014 when Michael Jordan renamed the Bobcats.
Established
1997
City
Charlotte
League History
1997 – 2007 / Women’s National Basketball Association
Team History
1997 – 2007 / Charlotte Sting
Nickname
Sting – The Sting was then the sister team to the NBA Charlotte Hornets, hence the nickname Sting to go along with the Hornet name.
Championship
WNBA Championships 0
Arena
2006 / Time Warner Cable Arena
1997 – 2005 / Charlotte Coliseum
Owner
1997 – 2007 / Robert L. Johnson
Retired Number
32 Andrea Stinson
*Blue is this team’s history