Whittingham is going to hang it up sometime in the next few years.
When he does retire, we will most likely go through a transition period and hopefully maintain status as a respectable P5 school.
When we transition, we will lose some games, and it will be harder to sell tickets.
Sellouts are a big deal in terms of noise (big home field advantage) and a stat we can throw out when recruiting.
Locker rooms are a big deal to recruits and prioritizing those should help us build the program more now, and weather the coaching transition storm.
Better to keep the noise in and stay conservative on seating in order to maximize the present, transition period and future.
So I agree iamthepreacher, huge win.