THE hosting of another Australian Football League NAB Cup match is another opportunity for Ballarat to push its case to host regular season matches.As this newspaper, supported by the community, has been discussing in recent weeks, months and years, our city is well positioned to become a home of AFL.The announcement yesterday that North Melbourne will face the Western Bulldogs at Eureka Stadium on the long weekend in March, next year, promises to be a bonanza for the city and for tourism.It will be played in the middle of the Begonia Festival activities, promising a weekend of diverse events that will again showcase our city’s ability to host thousands of visitors.The Courier’s Think Big Ballarat campaign, the prioritising by the City of Ballarat to a multi-million sports and entertainment precinct at Eureka Stadium, the continuing commitment of the North Melbourne Football Club to Ballarat and a groundswell of community support leads us to believe that bringing AFL to Ballarat on a regular basis is building momentum.As we have pointed out in the past, a community-building project at Eureka Stadium is not just about AFL, or sport. It’s about better facilities for everyone who lives in our community, it’s about education, it’s about investment in infrastructure. But we need buy in from the AFL to make it a reality.As we reveal today, further work to determine the feasibility and economic benefit to Ballarat of redeveloping the Eureka Stadium precinct provides further evidence that not only do the figures stack up, but that it would provide significant positive flow-on impacts for industries such as tourism, hospitality and retail.Given the work that has been undertaken, the next step will be the most vital. We need to convince our state and federal politicians, and those who run the AFL, of the benefits. Such a big picture project does not come without significant cost. We will need money from higher levels of government and support from the AFL to bring this project to fruition.Our job is to again prove how badly we – and the people of Western Victoria want it – making next year’s NAB Cup a showcase of how we support the AFL will provide residents with another opportunity to do just that.