A BLOCKBUSTER long-weekend combining AFL football and the Begonia Festival will put Ballarat in the national spotlight and add new impetus to the push to upgrade Eureka Stadium.Ballarat’s committed AFL partners North Melbourne will play the Western Bulldogs in a pre-season NAB Cup fixture at North Ballarat next year.The clash, to be held on Sunday, March 11, will be televised live through Fox Sports and forms part of a big weekend for Ballarat, which concurrently hosts the three-day Begonia Festival.The announcement comes as the City of Ballarat accelerates its efforts to sell the upgrade of the major events precinct to the federal government with new figures on the economic windfall of AFL games.Ballarat Mayor Craig Fletcher said the Eureka Stadium fixturing clearly demonstrated the AFL’s confidence in Ballarat to host matches.“The televised NAB Cup game is a fantastic coup for Ballarat. It shows that the ground is at AFL level and shows the importance of Ballarat as the regional capital of western Victoria,” Cr Fletcher said.“Council is committed to ensuring that the Eureka Precinct gets further advanced and this is a great example of what Ballarat can deliver.”The match is a significant step forward in Ballarat’s goal of attracting AFL home and away fixtures to the city. In the past, Ballarat has only hosted AFL teams for practice and NAB Regional Challenge games, which have not been televised. As part of the revamped NAB Cup program, all matches will now count towards official NAB Cup standings.Next year’s match between the Kangaroos and the Bulldogs will be a full-scale, four-quarter affair, with Eureka Stadium one of just seven regional venues throughout Australia to host a game.Pledge your support to Think Big Ballarat in the comments box below North Melbourne chief executive Eugene Arocca said the scheduling was a great win for Ballarat and North Melbourne. “We are thrilled that the AFL has seen fit to schedule a NAB Cup match in Ballarat. This is significant as it is the first time, that a NAB Cup game (as opposed to a Regional Challenge match) is being played in Ballarat,” he said.Mr Arocca highlighted that 2010 had seen a tripling of North Melbourne membership numbers in Ballarat. “Equally important, the AFL has agreed to fixture North Melbourne to play in the match; we have been a strident supporter of the push to play AFL games in Ballarat and much has been achieved since we first partnered up with the Ballarat Council in 2009 with the stated objective of increasing AFL content.“We will continue to support the region as a future home of an AFL stadium for the playing of matches for premiership points.”City of Ballarat CEO Anthony Schinck has also welcomed the news and hailed it as part of a rewards for developing partnerships between football and government as well as a strategic investment in the North Ballarat oval and facilities so far.Follow @ballaratcourier