A reduction from 7,600 to 6,800 is a lot greater than "a bit". That's 800 seats, which is about 11% of the initial estimate.7600 was just an initial estimate when the renovation was first announced last summer. As the plans were finalized that number apparently went down a bit.
As far as renovation vs. rebuild, I'd guess time had a lot to do with that decision
Building a brand new arena may very well take longer than renovating the old one, but the advantages of having a brand new state-of-the-art facility (for about the same money) surely outweighs the inconvenience of playing one extra season elsewhere in Chicagoland.
EDIT: BTW, in the release linked above, I cannot find the capacity of the renovated arena. Is it there?
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