The Charlotte Sting was a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) franchise based in Charlotte, North Carolina and it was one of the league's eight original teams. The team folded on January 3, 2007. Formerly the sister organization of the Charlotte Hornets, it became the sister team to the Charlotte Bobcats. Robert L. Johnson, founder of BET, 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.