NORTH Melbourne chief executive Eugene Arocca has flagged the regional Victorian town of Ballarat as a viable host for a Kangaroos home and away fixture in the future.

The club has ties to the area through VFL affiliate North Ballarat, which plays at Eureka Stadium, and earlier this year signed a five-year memorandum of understanding with the City of Ballarat with the objective of playing a pre-season game there in the future.

Arocca admitted a lot of work needed to be done to achieve the goal of playing a home and away match in the town, but said the benefits to the club would be many.
 
"If we got 10,000 people to Eureka Stadium we'd probably make three times more money than we'd make at [Docklands]," Arocca said from Friday's launch of the second annual Eureka game against Richmond, in Ballarat.

"We've got a short-term objective to have a NAB regional challenge game here.

"I'm really confident that in the next 12-24 months there will be genuine pressure on the AFL to fixture a game here whether it's a NAB regional challenge or a NAB Cup game.

"It's subject to the condition of the oval and the infrastructure around it, but we'll be going a million miles an hour to make sure it happens."

The club held its NAB AFL Community Camp in the town last year and Arocca revealed the Kangaroos had received the AFL's permission to do so again next year with a view to making the pre-season visit an annual event.

The club has sold home games interstate in a bid to raise revenue in recent years, and will continue to do so, but Arocca said the importance of the club's own back yard couldn't be overstated.

"Regional cities in Victoria are just as important to us as our interstate markets were 10 years ago," he said.

"We decided to come to this city for a reason and we'd love to think that there's a real opportunity down the track for something to [happen].

"We need to take small steps. Get some NAB regional games here and show them that we can do it and get the support of the city behind us."