I agree with this.
It always sounds fishy to me these fire regulation excuses. Are there no other exits? Of course there are. How about all the exits on the East side that were covered up in year 2 for food and beer stations.
How about the equally large exits in the south end that are barely used.
Every game I laughed at the masses of people lined up at the gate by the food building. The gates behind the south end 114-116, never had more than 20 people at them.
The only thing I can think of is that the square footage of the north end beer garden is included with the square footage on the crappy undersized west side concourse, in some calculation for minimum open area requirements, because the idea you can't have seats in the north end because of a lack of exits, or too many people is laughable.