North Carolina Tar Heels Football Tickets

Carolina football in brief

North Carolina plays its home games at Kenan Stadium, in the middle of the UNC campus in Chapel Hill. Capacity is about 50,500 after seating changes in 2018, and the home schedule runs from late August or early September through November. The Tar Heels are a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, the top tier of NCAA Division I).

UNC fielded its first team in 1888, making it one of the oldest programs in the South. The football history is steadier than spectacular: five ACC championships (1963, 1971, 1972, 1977 and 1980), ACC Coastal Division titles in 2015 and 2022, and a long list of NFL players, including Lawrence Taylor, Julius Peppers and Drake Maye. Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice made Kenan one of the hottest tickets in the South in the late 1940s.

• Fight song: "I'm a Tar Heel Born"
• Mascot: Rameses, a live ram
• National attention: the December 2024 hiring of six-time Super Bowl-winning NFL coach Bill Belichick brought unusual national interest to the program; check current news for the staff and roster

Kenan Stadium: layout and where to sit

Kenan Stadium sits in a natural hollow surrounded by pine and oak trees. The original 1927 stands are now the lower level of the north and south sidelines, which were double-decked in 1963. The west end zone was enclosed in the late 1990s, turning the stadium into a horseshoe, and the Blue Zone premium building closed the east end in 2011.

Sideline seats

• North and south sidelines between the 30s: the best view of the game and the highest demand. The stands curve slightly toward midfield, a detail from the original design.
• Upper sideline rows: a full view of formations and usually better value than low rows near the corners.
• Sun: because the field runs east to west, the north stands face south, toward the afternoon sun. For an early-season day game, a south-side seat keeps the sun behind you; for night games it does not matter.

End zones

• West end zone: most of it is the student section, known as the "Tar Pit", along with three sections of the south stands. Resale buyers who land here should expect to stand.
• East end zone (Blue Zone): about 3,000 club, loge and suite seats, including a concourse club close to the field, with indoor space and the most amenities in the building.

Visiting schools receive a ticket block; ask yourself whether you mind sitting near a rival crowd before you buy in a corner of the bowl. Confirm the exact section on the map attached to your listing.

NC State, Duke and the biggest home games

• NC State: the fiercest rivalry for both schools. The teams first met in 1894 and have played every year since the ACC formed in 1953; the series since then is close to even. A home NC State game, usually late in the season, is the hardest ticket at Kenan.
• Duke: the Triangle rivalry, first played in 1888, when Duke was still Trinity College. The winner keeps the Victory Bell, introduced in 1948 and painted in the holder's shade of blue.
• Virginia: the "South's Oldest Rivalry," first played in 1892 and one of the most-played series among the major conferences. Virginia was the opponent when Kenan was dedicated in 1927.
• Wake Forest: the two schools played the first college football game in North Carolina in 1888.
• South Carolina: the Battle of the Carolinas, now played only occasionally; the most recent regular-season meeting was at a neutral site in Charlotte in 2023.

Rivalry games, ranked ACC visitors and games late in a winning season draw the most demand. Early nonconference games are the easiest tickets in the building.

Gameday in Chapel Hill

Kenan is a walk-up stadium on a busy campus, and the setting is part of the appeal: brick walkways, pine trees and a stadium that fans reach on foot through the trees, as its builders intended in 1927. Parking close to the stadium is limited, so plan where you will park before you leave and allow extra time for traffic into Chapel Hill before big games.

• Tailgating: happens in permitted lots and green spaces around campus rather than in one large stadium lot; rules vary by lot, so check the athletics department's gameday page for the current season.
• Bags and entry: like most ACC stadiums, Kenan has enforced a clear-bag policy in recent seasons. Check the current policy on the UNC athletics site before you go.
• Weather: September games can be hot and humid, and there is little cover in the bowl; late-November games can turn cold after sunset.

How Tar Heels football tickets are sold

Season tickets go first to returning holders, and the best sideline locations are tied to giving through the Rams Club, UNC's athletics donor organization. Students receive tickets through a separate university system that fills most of the west end zone. Single-game tickets go on sale after season holders are served, and for many nonconference games plenty remain.

Rivalry games are different. For NC State, Duke or a ranked visitor, most good seats are held by season-ticket holders, and resale is how most fans get in. Prices respond to the opponent, the team's record, the kickoff time and the weather, and they often move in the final days before a big game. Every order on GoodSeats comes with guaranteed entry.

A stadium built in seven months

Kenan Stadium replaced Emerson Field, which held only about 2,400. William R. Kenan Jr., an 1894 graduate, gave the money to build it in memory of his parents, and crews carved it out of a wooded ravine in seven months in 1927. It opened with 24,000 seats and was dedicated on November 24, 1927, with a 14–13 win over Virginia.

Expansions followed in 1963, 1988 and 1997–1998, the last pushing capacity to 60,000. The 2011 east end zone project raised it to about 63,000 before metal bleachers were replaced with individual seats in 2018. The field switched to artificial turf in 2019 and was scheduled to return to natural grass for 2025.

Sources

• Wikipedia – North Carolina Tar Heels football
• Wikipedia – Kenan Stadium
• UNC Athletics – Football