When word leaked out about 3 years ago that the new stadium might have a capacity of below 70,000...some people on Doogman freaked out, so Woodward basically said he wanted to create a "hot ticket" and that UW Football hasn't been selling out games since Don James retired except for a bit during Rick Neuheisel's tenure. This of course was proven incorrect by an HHB member before he was banned on the Doogman pay bored. Since the 1987 north deck expansion and through the 2003 season there were only about 5 games where the paid attendance was less than 70,000. Then attendance went into the shitter when Gilby went 1-10 in 2004 and it has been a struggle to get to 70,000 since. Notice the UW hasn't announced the capacity of the stadium yet? They've been selling season tickets and single game tickets for Tyees. You don't think they know what the capacity is yet? My guess is that it's below 70,000 and they're putting off announcing it until the first game to avoid any backlash over the drop in capacity and the topic after the first game will be the "big" win over a WAC team or how Sark sucks because he lost to Boise St. In back to back games.
That's a little different from saying Husky Football has NEVER traditionally been a hot ticket. Woody is definitely spinning, taking a little "artistic license" with the facts by saying it hasn't been since James' days to make a point, but I'm not sure how anyone could say that the last ten years or so have not sucked. I've been up there for a number of games over that span and the place has mostly been like a morgue, at times almost like attending a baseball game. Stark contrast to the days when the place was full of crazies and would get ear piercing loud.
The problem is the product on the field, not the size of the stadium. Given the architecture, the new stadium will have more than enough capacity to get damned loud and be a damned fine place to watch a football game in, but it's going to take putting a team on the field that people feel like showing up for.