SORT:: issues

I have read on the forums abt sorting and seems like everyone is having problems with it. I am actually working out a grandstand with crowds with alpha at the seats. I made the crowds with planes and tried sorting it. My polygons jumped up from 2000 polys to 6000 polys. I know sort will cause the polys to increase by 4 times.

Is there any way i could do away with sorting when making the crowds? Or is there a better way to make crowds? My grandstd has to be dts due to some reasons.

Tks :)