My guess at the time Charlotte bit it, was that the league sacrificed it to save the Comets, they couldn't run two franchises and weren't in a position to move the Sting somewhere. (Or maybe it was my hope since I thought they should have moved the Sting to Chicago)
From my conversation with our resident Comets fan, he's heard the league has been in talks for a while with $$$ people in Dallas. This would make sense, beyond losing the team that is so deeply ingrained in the young league's existence and history, the media market they call home is too big to lose for the league's portfolio. Dallas is a big step up in markets if they can pull it off.
I do believe the push is to move them and contraction is a very very very last resort.