NORTH Melbourne is asking its supporters to buy packages for between $300 and $10,000 to help the club wipe its $5 million debt.

Fans who purchase a 'Premiership Pledge' package will have access to a range of privileges, including guaranteed Grand Final tickets for the next five years if the Kangaroos are competing, and dinner with their favourite player.

North Melbourne chairman James Brayshaw said the club needed to eliminate its debt in order to be competitive once free agency arrives.

Free agency will be introduced at the end of next season, enabling long-serving players who are out of contract to cross to a club of their choice without being traded or entering the draft.

"Debt has held this club back in many ways for almost 30 years and we need our 30,000 strong membership to help us attack it now," he said. 

"We have to be ready for free agency and keep players like Drew Petrie on our list, but also have the ability to grab other quality players if and when they're on the market. 

"That can't happen when you're spending half a million dollars a year servicing debt. 

"The interest repayments alone are similar to what we pay our best players."

The Kangaroos currently pay around $450,000 in interest on the debt each year, money Brayshaw said would be better invested in the football department or its target growth areas of southern Tasmania and regional Victoria.

Despite announcing a $500,000 loss for 2011 in November, Brayshaw said the Kangaroos were "absolutely" in a position for long-term financial sustainability.

"North Melbourne is a boutique-size club, and we'd be kidding ourselves if we try to position ourselves any other way," he said.

"So you've got to cut your cloth to suit that.

"Do we operate our business the same way that Eddie [McGuire] operates Collingwood? No. And we'd be mad to try and do that.

"But what we need to do is grow, and to keep getting bigger.

"We need to get the 250,000 people in southern Tasmania to be rusted on North Melbourne fans, and we need to get into the Warrnambool-Bendigo-Ballarat triangle - the fastest growing regional area in Australia - and really spend a lot of time and effort, hopefully getting those people to invest in coming to North Melbourne games in that area.

"So everything that this club's about now is about growing, and getting better and bigger.

"And it all funnels back to the same thing, and that's giving [senior coach] Brad [Scott] and his team everything that they need to try and achieve what we're here to achieve, and that is a fifth premiership."
 
North Melbourne supporters can buy a 'Premiership Pledge' package via the club's website, www.kangaroos.com.au.