Options for Luxury seating is the right financial play. You can look at arenas built in the last decade and see evidence in arenadigest.com and similar industry websites.

Fewer John Q Public seats and more premium options.
A few large suites for the Prez and some Fortune 500 types
Some Mini-Suites for local smaller businesses
Some Club seats for the Duke Club members that want to socialize in the club room.
Some Public Premium seats for those that would like a restricted access beer garden pregame and halftime

Arenas don’t make their money by selling out 8500 general seats.
They do it by having many options for premium seating that are far more profitable.
I still think 6500 is the right capacity number, but there should be chunks of that dedicated to different levels of premium seating


Here is an article that talks about arena capacity strategy. One of the things it mentions is Richmond’s renovation of the Robins Center. Their average attendance only went up 242 people in the first season, but revenue went up 31%. People will pay more if they have the right amenities.
https://www.athleticbusiness.com/stadium...acity.html