William Donald Carmichael Jr. Arena (formerly known as Carmichael Auditorium and commonly known as Blue Heaven) is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. It is home to four Tar Heels athletic teams: women's basketball, volleyball, women's gymnastics, and wrestling. It is named for William Donald Carmichael Jr., a popular former school vice-president and brother of All-America basketball player Cartwright Carmichael.
Although there had been concerns as early as the late 1940s that the men's basketball team's needed a new home to replace 6,000-seat Woollen Gymnasium, the need for a larger arena had become acute by the 1960s with the team's growing popularity. The Tar Heels were forced to move home games to Charlotte or Greensboro, which were more than double Woollen's size.
However, the state was unwilling to fund a completely new arena. As a result, Carmichael Auditorium was built as an annex to Woollen; it shares the older facility's eastern wall. It originally seated just over 8,800 people, but was expanded to 10,000 seats in 1976.
Carmichael was known as one of the loudest arenas in the country while the Tar Heel men played there, largely because of a low roof and a student section that ringed the court. In part due to this formidable home court advantage, the men had a record of 169–20 (.894) in just over 20 seasons there. Dean Smith was the Tar Heels' coach for their entire tenure in Carmichael. The Tar Heels won their second NCAA title in 1981–82, while playing at the arena.
In their last game at Carmichael, the 1985–86 Tar Heels men's team beat the North Carolina State Wolfpack 90–79 on January 4, 1986. The team moved to the Dean Smith Center two weeks later. After a remodeling project completed in 2009, capacity is 8,010.
A new floor was installed in 1998, after a roof fire that occurred in February during renovations. The arena was completely remodeled beginning in spring 2008, and the women's team joined the men in the Dean Smith Center until completion in December 2009. The facility was officially renamed Carmichael Arena during the women's team's matchup against rival Duke on February 28, 2010.
Background and construction
By 1948, there began to be sentiments that Woollen was too small. In 1958, after the university began to reduce the number of true home games, the student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel showed dissatisfaction with that decision and felt a new gym with a larger capacity would be needed to keep drawing strong competition. The article cited how Coach Adolph Rupp and the Kentucky Wildcats played at Duke in front of a less than capacity crowd and would not return because they made little money off the visit.
As the Tar Heels increased in popularity, the university chose to have home games at off–campus venues as Woollen's seating was so limited, choosing to play in Charlotte or Greensboro instead. By playing at these locations, the school would turn more profit than normal home games at Woollen since student tickets were limited for these games and the venue was larger, allowing more tickets to be sold to the masses. In the team's final season at Woollen, the Tar Heels only played seven true home games. Due the various factors including Woollen Gymnasium's capacity, basketball practices being interrupted by intramural sports, and limited office space, the University of North Carolina administration sought plans to build a new facility. The venue was to be named for William Donald Carmichael Jr. a former school vice president and former varsity basketball player from 1917 to 1920, as well as brother of Cartwright Carmichael. The Woollen's seating capacity the number of home games the school could host to around seven games a season, it was hoped that the opening of Carmichael Auditorium would allow for ten home games a season. The new Auditorium's facilities would contain offices for all athletic departments, except for football which would be housed in the then Kenan Fieldhouse, in the east endzone of Kenan Memorial Stadium. A trophy hall will be located in the entrance hallway and housed the trophies of all the athletic programs.
Construction began in May 1964 for the new annexed Auditorium. On August 16, 1965, a water main that was connected improperly broke and flooded the auditorium with eight inches of water, which delayed the construction until a new floor could be placed. The burst was estimated to cost around $14,000 extra to repair. The venue featured four bathrooms and four concession stands. In front of a crowd of around 4,000, Chancellor Paul F. Sharp spoke regarding the school's current climate. On Saturday November 6, following the North Carolina–Clemson football game in Kenan Memorial Stadium, Carmichael hosted its first basketball game where the men's freshman basketball tea squared off against the varsity team. The game had free admission and started at approximately 4PM local time. In an upset, the freshman team led by Rusty Clark and Bill Bunting won 78–74. A rematch was held on the following Wednesday. Construction was finished in time for the start of the 1965–66 season, where they defeated the William & Mary Indians 82–68 in front of a crowd of roughly 7,000. However, the seats were not fully installed yet, which led to a maximum capacity of 7,000 with the goal to completely installed by December 11.
thumb|left|Carmichael Auditorium, circa 1968
History
In a column over the increasing ticket issue, The Daily Tar Heel in January 1976 wrote that the capacity was truly 8,170 despite being reported as 8,800 and that demand was typically double capacity at least since its opening. In the 1975–76 season the auditorium contained 6,617 permanent seats at the time, 3,200 to students (1,503 bleacher seats and 1,697 permanent seats), 2,350 went to the Rams Club (where one must've donated $500 in 1975 to get the opportunity to purchase tickets), 2,150 tickets to faculty and staff, and 500 were reserved for press, player's families, Dean Smith's office workers, or given out as complimentary by the athletic department.
Before the 1972–73 season, students gathered at eight distribution centers within Carmichael to receive tickets. Starting with the 1975–76 season, the school decided it would randomly distribute the tickets to the first 3,200 that arrived in order to reduce the chaos by those arriving early to get a better seat. Carmichael at the time sat 8,200. Since the team's departure for the Smith Center, the men's basketball has returned to Carmichael on two occasions in 2010 and 2019, where they played William & Mary as a part of the National Invitation Tournament and won 82–70 and later against Wofford, losing 68–64. In total, Carolina played 191 games in Carmichael and finished with a record of 170–21 (.890). As of the conclusion of the 2021–22 season, Carmichael has the best home winning percentage of the five home venues for the Tar Heels. The Tar Heels went undefeated at Carmichael Auditorium in six of their twenty-one seasons at the facility: 1969–69 (9–0), 1970–71 (9–0), 1971–72 (9–0), 1978–79 (9–0), 1983–84 (9–0), and 1977–78 (10–0). The most losses in a single season while playing in Carmichael came in the 1972–73 campaign when the Tar Heels lost three games. The Tar Heels showed success in the Atlantic Coast Conference, winning the ACC regular season title in 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1985, while winning the post–season conference tournament in 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981, and 1982.
Other uses
Carmichael hosted many concerts and public speakers over its early years, but those numbers declined into the mid-1970s. Since its opening, the acoustics had been criticized in Carmichael, while the noise reverberating off the steel beams lining the "dome-like ceiling" was a benefit during home basketball games, it had been negatively received by musicians and concert go-ers. The Supremes (in 1965), Jethro Tull (in 1971), Black Sabbath (in 1971), Fleetwood Mac (in 1975), Talking Heads (in 1983), Prince (in 1983), Neil Young (in 1983), The Clash (in 1984), Alanis Morissette (in 1999), J. Cole (in 2012), and 2 Chainz (in 2017). Comedian Eddie Murphy performed in front of an audience of around 8,000 in 1985.
in 1987, Carmichael hosted the U.S. Olympic Festival volleyball competition. Carolina union concert program.