As an upper-norther, I could say the same thing about why less people than that are sitting in the Club Level seats in the lower east during most games, and it's a sea of red during u(sic)ga games. If we got rid of all of the seats that haven't been occupied the last few years, we'd be tearing out about 35% of the seats. I'm an optomist and believe we will overcome the damage that TFG caused and start seeing a lot more butts in the currently empty seats.
Under both Gailey and Johnson, the lower half of the UN was mostly full most games. For bigger games it was 2/3 full. For the top 1-2 games per year that top 1/3 became opposing fans.
There are 6 rows below the walkway, including a handicap row, and there are about 33 rows above the walkway, for a total of about 39 rows. So then, the UN was generally full up about 19 rows, or about 13 rows above the walkway for a normal ACC game (UNC, UVA, UMD, etc.), with most above that being empty. For bigger games (F$U, Miami, VPI, etc.) that grew to about 20 rows above the walkway with a smattering of opposing fans above that. For the top games (UGAg, Auburn, Clemson, ND, etc.) the stadium was full, with mostly GT fans about 2/3 of the way up, or about 20 rows above the walkway (the exception would be UGAg on a bad year for GT) and the rest packed with opposing fans.
The top 10-12 rows in the UN are just overflow for opposing fans in big games. All stadiums have those sections. In this case, they are very high endzone seats and will never be high-demand seats. That still, however, gives GT about 25 rows of good seats for GT fans for most games.
I was on row 11 and we never had opposing fans in my vicinity to deal with - even UGAg in 2009 and 2011 - which was definitely NOT true in the UW high on the 28-yard-line in 2005 and 2007.
We just need to get back to winning and the UN will be rocking once again.