The issue was that the club gave us (1894) a load of tickets in SSL1 for singers to relocate. We filled this with a few hundred names (I think 650 from memory). The day after we gave those details to the club to process relocations, they announce tickets in SSL3 were near enough half the price and we lost around 300 of the names overnight. The people that took their place aren't all singers. So you're right, in hindsight the club could have offered us either cheaper tickets or seats in SSL3 but neither happened. Hindsight is 20/20 though so it's easy to so we should have done this and that!
We also felt at the time that SSL1 would have been better for displays and flags as it's visible compared to SSL3. At the time we knew rail seating would come in eventually too, and SSL3 doesn't have the correct rake (I think that's the term) for that. We knew as soon as rail seating comes in other areas will be forced to sit where they previously would have turned a blind eye.
The best thing the club could have done in my opinion was to turn SSL3 into a family stand and offer the incredibly cheap tickets in SSL1 and NSL1. That would have improved the atmosphere much more. It's not just how loud fans are, but it's also about goading opposition players, cheering ours etc proximity to the pitch plays a large role in that. There were times in the second half yesterday where we won a corner in front of the northstand and the players get nothing other than a half-hearted clap. Because everyone is sat down there the empty seats are visible too. If fans were standing the last minute goals we score would look better.