Official delegates from both parties have been over every detail and new fixture Mars Stadium can offer as works draw to a close.

But this weekend, they will understand exactly why we should be grandstanding for more special attention.

AFL Goldfields will host the Victorian Amateur Football Association in an historic interleague showdown – our best open-age female footballers against theirs.

A curtain-raiser to North Ballarat Roosters in the Victorian Football League, this clash showcases the potential.

Mars Stadium should host AFLW matches.

We know the Bulldogs are keen. They have repeatedly indicated so.

Their spiritual home of Whitten Oval has proven perfect size for crowds in the inaugural AFLW season. But with our newer, impressive facilities, Ballarat offers a chance to reach a largely untapped, whole bigger fan base in western Victoria at a time when the elite league itself is expanding.

This is even more imperative with Geelong and its state-of-the-art Kardinia Park home pushing for an AFLW team down the road next season.

And a hopeful Hawthorn, if successful, is touting AFLW matches for country Victoria.

Whether Ballarat gets to host any, remains unclear.

Ballarat can boast to be one of the strongest exports for AFLW footballers. We had seven players in the new elite women’s league last season, including two top-ups.

This AFL Goldfields women’s team, the first under the competition’s new structure, is starting to now showcase the exciting talent we have emerging from youth league ranks – like three-time best and fairest winner Amy McDonald (Redan).

Female curtain-raisers are nothing new in the VFL. The VFL Women’s competition, and its previous forms, are common in Melbourne fixtures and often with shared billing.

This is a chance for Ballarat to prove we have the talent, facilities, support and perfectly-sized stadium to be considered to hosting AFLW.

Public tickets to the first AFL premiership season match in Ballarat have sold out. Western Bulldogs-Port Adelaide will be the first Bulldogs-hosted match in a partnership promising to bring multiple matches per season to Mars Stadium for four more years.

That will be a massive test, but so will this women’s match in its own way.

TAC Cup, the elite under-18 competition, is already looking to Mars Stadium for boutique use.

A country triple-header will unfold one day after AFL action in what is billed a festival of football. Our Greater Western Victoria Rebels will be in action on a day also marking the Rebels 1997 premiership reunion.

TAC Cup confirmed on Thursday Mars Stadium would host an elimination finals double-header with its long-time finals venue, Carlton’s Princes Park, undergoing redevelopments.

Ballarat is uncharted territory for the game’s top ranks, aside from a few pre-season hit-outs. It is time for the AFL to get serious in extending its reach. Explore Mars.