Canedude, I hear what you're saying. For me, it still comes down to an arena that is half full is not really a sellout. Whether people have paid or not. It's hard to accept seeing a half full Watsco game after game, good team or bad.What I'm saying is that a lot of people buy season tickets just for the big games(That's not even including the FSU alumni that buy season tickets just for that one game). You're better off price wise if the only games you want to see is the Duke, UNC, Syracuse, Louisville, Virginia matchups. Even if you skip every single other game, you are still coming out on top, compared to attempting to buy tickets on the secondary market. Even when Miami was among the nation's best in 2012, with an extremely exciting style of play, there were late season ACC games that looked half full. Why? Because people aren't going to come out to see Miami, even arguably the best Miami team in program history play Georgia Tech. That's my point.
Again, what does this program gain by saying "We sold out of season ticket packages" and they didn't? They would be DISCOURAGING potential late adopters. When you account for the midsize capacity of the Watsco Center, the amount of student tickets, and other factors(The concept that **** near no one buys ONE season ticket, they buy at least a pair), it's not that tough to believe that Miami could sell that many season tickets, especially playing in a conference where you are assured of at least 2 elite teams coming down every season. The problem is that people will only show up if it's an event, and Miami playing Clemson in basketball is never going to be an event. Look at the Heat during the Big 3 era as an example. I went to plenty of Heat games at the time, they were technically sell outs, but if they were playing a garbage team, it could be mighty empty in spots.
As to why the AD might fudge the numbers, I don't know. But ... you see it clearly also at Hard Rock. Crowd counts are routinely almost doubled. Why would they do that? People and viewers have eyes. When other major college programs claim "sellouts," the numbers in the stands appear to be real turnstile counts. We're the only school who has this large disparity?