Pro women's basketball returns to Charlotte
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From left: Guard Chloe Welch, Crown head coach Trisha Stafford-Odom and point guard Deja Kelly during a panel discussion at Ovens Auditorium. Photo: Ashley Mahoney/Axios
Charlotte's new professional women's basketball team tips off this month.
Why it matters: The Charlotte Crown is the latest pro women's sports team to call Charlotte home, and it's part of a wave of new opportunities for women to compete professionally.
Catch up quick: The team was announced in January 2025 as one of the inaugural teams in the new Upshot League. The developmental league is designed as a stepping stone for players aspiring to make it to the WNBA.
- The roster was formed through a combination of local and regional tryouts and recruitment of players returning from playing overseas or failing make a WNBA roster.
- Crown head coach and former WNBA player Trisha Stafford-Odom describes the Crown roster as fluid because WNBA teams make cuts or players get injured. "We're always going to have an opportunity to keep the competition fresh," Stafford-Odom tells Axios.
Driving the news: The Crown opens the season on the road at 7pm Friday vs. the Jacksonville Waves.
- They play their inaugural home game at 7pm on May 21 against the Waves at Bojangles Coliseum. Tickets start at $23.36. They will play 17 regular-season games at Bojangles Coliseum through August.
Between the lines: Florida-based Zawyer Sports & Entertainment owns the Crown, as well as the Charlotte Checkers and Gastonia Ghost Peppers. Shawn Lynch is the president for both the Checkers and the Crown.
State of play: Capacity for games will be around 8,500, Lynch tells Axios. As for the Crown's inaugural game in Charlotte, the hope is to sellout Bojangles Coliseum. Sales for the home opener are around 5,000, Lynch says.
- The goal is to average around 3,000 fans per home game for the inaugural season.
- "For us to be successful, we have to do the same thing we do on the Checkers side," Lynch says. "That's getting support from the corporate community and getting group sales." That means focusing on nonprofits, churches, youth sports leagues and schools.
Zoom in: The Crown is bringing in players with not only skill on the court, but a large social media presence that can help grow the brand new league.
- Point guard Deja Kelly, for instance, has 515,000 Instagram followers. She played at North Carolina and Oregon.
- The league allows athletes more opportunities to play, Kelly told reporters. It's also an opportunity for players fresh out of college to have somewhere to play immediately.
What we're watching: The team has been training at Queens University of Charlotte and utilized the Johnston YMCA. Bojangles Coliseum will be closed for much of July for renovations, Lynch says.
- The team will have the opportunity to practice on their home court in June and August, Lynch says.
- The ultimate goal is for each Zawyer Sports & Entertainment team to have a dedicated practice facility.
Flashback: Charlotte previously had a WNBA team called the Charlotte Sting. The team, which folded in the early 2000s, was owned by the same group as the Bobcats (now the Charlotte Hornets).
- "We all know there was a women's pro basketball team here before," Stafford-Odom says, adding that it's a matter of capturing old fans and new.