Maybe you're talking about 40 years ago or football games but the students were together along the side and there were more students closer to the court with that set up. Now the way the student section narrows down more students are further away. The biggest reason you may feel that way is because the game cameras were always set up on the same side as the student section so you didn't see much of the student section during the game except during time outs, etc.. (this would drive me nuts). Having gone to entire seasons during the change it was definitely better before (except for where cameras were)