As a result, Carmichael Auditorium was built as an annex to Woollen; it shares the older facility's eastern wall.

[2] 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 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 facility was officially renamed Carmichael Arena during the women's team's matchup against rival Duke on February 28, 2010.

[4] 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.

[5] 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.

[5] In July 1962, there was a request to the North Carolina state legislature by the Consolidated University to receive funds to build an addition to Woollen Gym rather than a new $6 million coliseum as some had proposed.

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,[8] choosing to play in Charlotte or Greensboro instead.

[8] 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.

[16] It was hoped that the larger capacity (then estimated to be 10,000) in the auditorium would allow the university to turn a profit on home games for basketball.

[16] A lighter blue was used for some of the overhead beams in order to provide good background for the colorful clothes people wear to games.

Erickson stated that the new building would not be large enough to fit the growing student body and that the school would need to start planning on how to expand the venue further to accommodate the growth.

[23] Nancy Wilson performed the first concert in Carmichael later that evening at 8PM local time, tickets were $1 for students and $1.50 for general admission.

[25][26] 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.

[32] This new system was felt to be improved compared to the first-come, first-served method, but some students still preferred the previous way.

[31] When asked about enlarging Carmichael itself, Coach Smith stated that "We have been exploring that for a long time but we don't know structurally if that can be done or to what extent.

[37] The school had started scheduling some home games in Greensboro and Charlotte as they had prior to Carmichael's opening when the team was still in Woollen.

"[37] Carolina played their final home game at Carmichael on January 4, 1986, against NC State Wolfpack and won 90–79.

[12][39] 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.

[42][43] 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.

"[N 1] Concerts also had declined because the Carolina Union could not afford the asking price of the desired acts in combination with the fact musicians started to gravitate towards scheduling larger regional venues in order to increase revenue like the Greensboro Coliseum.

[43] Then Carolina Union Director Howard Henry commented that when Carmichael was being built ceiling acoustic panels were declined to be included in construction and if added in 1976 would cost approximately $100,000.

[43] Some of the notable performers in Carmichael include: Louis Armstrong (1965),[44] The Supremes (in 1965),[45] Jethro Tull (in 1971),[46] Black Sabbath (in 1971),[47] Fleetwood Mac (in 1975),[48] Talking Heads (in 1983),[49] Prince (in 1983),[50] Neil Young (in 1983),[51] The Clash (in 1984),[52] Alanis Morissette (in 1999), J. Cole (in 2012), and 2 Chainz (in 2017).