CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — One of the WNBA’s founding franchises could make a comeback in the Queen City. WNBA officials are applying to take over the Charlotte Sting brand trademark.
Hopefully, fans haven’t gotten rid of their Charlotte Sting apparel.
“The bid process for us started in September 2022,” said potential team owner Erica Berman.
The Berman family submitted paperwork for a franchise before cities like San Francisco, Portland and Toronto were awarded expansion teams. The family wants to restore the Sting because of its past and the city’s present and future.
The Sting was founded in 1997 but after a decade of competition, multiple playoff appearances, and a trip to the 2001 WNBA finals, the franchise folded following the 2006 season.
“We saw the value and importance of women’s sports. We saw that trajectory of where women’s basketball specifically was going. Our family loves basketball,” Berman said. She says the entire family played sports in high school and carried their love for the games into adulthood.
“My father, his childhood, the stories that he tells of playing at Prospect Park in the Bronx when he was a kid still live on,” Berman said.
Bid consultant Nadia Eke is helping to bring that vision to light.
“Charlotte deserves a WNBA expansion team. I think everything is here. The market data shows that Charlotte has the infrastructure to support a WNBA expansion team,” Eke said.
She joined the Bermans’ effort — starting a petition drive for the Sting.
“I believe Portland had a petition. And of course, being athletes working on this and being competitive, we were like, well, if Portland did it, we can do it too. And if Portland got a team proving that they can get that many petitions signed, then we deserve a team as well.”
It got more than 4,000 signatures and fans’ messages that say “We need this!”
Eke is new to Charlotte but says she felt something in the city that gave promise.
“It’s about promise. It’s about community, it’s about empowerment. And that’s what we want this team to really embody and what we want the return of this thing to really be about,” Eke said.
The Bermans plan to invest in the community and plan to have community engagement events. She says building a legacy in Charlotte would be great.
“The Carolinas are really the heartbeat of basketball in the United States. You have Duke, NC State, Wake Forest, and South Carolina like that in a very small space. So again bringing this wouldn’t just be for the city of Charlotte. This is for the region of the Carolinas and bringing people together,” Berman said.
“I think it’s just so monumental and it’s really telling of the times that we’re in and really telling of the future that we have ahead of us, not just for, you know, women, but really for the community here and people seeing themselves and seeing that something going from just a want on Twitter becoming a reality,” Eke said.
Charlotte could become the WNBA’s 16th team as soon as 2028. Berman says it’d give owners about three years to build a practice facility for the players.
But she couldn’t say if former Sting player and current head coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball team Dawn Staley was an investor only that she was a major supporter.
“We also have a ton of support from all the corporations and the businesses in Charlotte we’ve met with. We met with the city. So everybody is ready to go,” Berman said.
Co-investing alongside the Bermans will be the Hornets ownership, the majority owners Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin, and minority owner Damian Mills.
