with the balconies half full, why not open up the seats for more students that would otherwise remain empty (non-conference especially)
I've never understood that
This just isn't true. just above you saw that they are over selling student tickets because the students don't fill up the seats they have, especially in the balcony. The problem you have in the balcony is students don't want to sit up there. They want to be down low, and they won't fill those seats.
But before we get side tracked, let's just focus on selling out the student tickets before we worry about selling more.