The Women's National Basketball Association might be returning to North Carolina.
A spokesperson for the Charlotte Hornets, speaking on behalf of the NBA franchise's ownership group, confirmed to ¼ª²ÊÍøÍøÕ¾ that the team is involved in a bid to bring a WNBA expansion side to Charlotte.
The Charlotte Sting were an original WNBA team that played in Charlotte from 1997 to 2006 before folding.
"Yes — our ownership group is involved," Hornets Chief Communications Officer Mike Cristaldi said.
"Hornets Sports & Entertainment believes strongly in the future growth of women's basketball and the WNBA," the Hornets said in a statement provided to ¼ª²ÊÍøÍøÕ¾. "The Charlotte Sting have a storied history and a passionate fanbase within our community. We are proud to back the Berman family and be a part of this larger group that is bidding to bring the WNBA back to Charlotte."
The leader behind this bid to potentially revive the Sting and bring the highest levels of women's professional basketball back to Charlotte is Erica Berman.
Erica Berman's father is Don Berman, who is the founder and executive chairman of CardWorks, a "leading credit and payments company" based in New York, according to its website. The Berman family has donated , based just outside of Charlotte. Berman's company was nearly acquired by Ally Financial — which has a headquarters in Charlotte — in , which is notable because Ally is a major player in women's sports sponsorships, having deals with the ACC and NWSL. Ally is the main shirt sponsor for Major League Soccer team Charlotte F.C.
Erica Berman is a senior vice president at CardWorks.
The Berman Family also invested in Unrivaled — the professional 3-on-3 women's basketball league — of $28 million.
Nadia Eke, a strategy consultant for Berman, told ¼ª²ÊÍøÍøÕ¾ the family's bid was submitted to Allen & Co. — an on expansion — by the Jan. 30 deadline.
Berman's bid is being supported by the new ownership group of the Hornets, which includes majority owners Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, who purchased the majority stake in the team from basketball legend Michael Jordan in 2023. Plotkin is the former head and founder of the hedge fund Melvin Capital Management, while Schnall is the co-president of a private equity firm.
The WNBA played the 2024 season — it's 28th since beginning in 1997 — with 12 teams. But as women's basketball has grown in popularity in recent years, cities and prospective owners have been in a race to land expansion franchises. The Golden State Valkyries — based in San Francisco — will debut this season, while teams based in Portland and Toronto will begin play in 2026. Already this year, public announcements have been made regarding bids for expansion teams in Nashville, Tennessee, and Detroit.
Toronto's ownership group for a WNBA expansion team.
Last week, the WNBA filed new trademark applications for five of its now-defunct franchises, .
While it's been nearly two decades since the WNBA played in Charlotte, there seems to be an appetite for women's basketball in the Queen City. For the second straight year, more than 15,000 people attended the Ally Tip-Off at the Spectrum Center — the home of the Hornets — for women's college basketball games. This season's event featured a game between reigning national champions University of South Carolina and N.C. State, in which Dawn Staley's Gamecocks won 71-57.
After the game, Staley reminisced on her days playing point guard for the Sting, where she made four WNBA All-Star teams and helped lead the squad to an appearance in the WNBA Finals in 2001. Months before this bid became public, Staley believed that Charlotte was ripe for a second chance from the WNBA.
"I think this is a prime spot for a WNBA team, for a Final Four — anything that women are doing. You see the city, they just embrace the game," Staley said in November.
The Atlantic Coast Conference will host its women's basketball tournament in Charlotte in 2027.
A different women's basketball league — the newly formed Upshot — announced in January that it will place one of its four teams in Charlotte when it begins play in 2026. The Charlotte team will play at the 8,600-seat Bojangles Coliseum. Organizers involved with Upshot, including women's basketball Hall of Famers Cheryl Miller and Ann Meyers Drysdale, . A team will also be based in Greensboro.
, the WNBA was the fastest growing professional sports brand in 2024. Game 5 of the WNBA Finals this past season between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx was the most-watched WNBA Finals game in 25 years, .
