As someone who lived in Charlotte for over 20 years, I can personally attest that the sole reason the Hornets moved away was George Shinn.
He constantly meddled with the team, influenced poor drafting in some cases, traded good players away, for the sake of saving a buck. The Hornets drafted Kobe Bryant and promptly traded him to the Lakers for Vlade Divac.
The last straw was when he whined that he was losing money, and needed to build a new stadium to replace the Charlotte Coliseum (built in 1988), which he of couse wanted funded by the City. The dispute turned very ugly, and the people turned on him when he threatened to move the team.
Charlotte led the league several years in a row, the numbers are there if you care to look. Don't ever let anyone tell you the team failed because of low attendance, that is pure bull sh--...