North Melbourne Kangaroos keen on Eureka Stadium

NORTH Melbourne Football Club chief executive officer Eugene Arocca says a government that does not commit to building a stadium capable of hosting AFL matches in Ballarat has "rocks in their head", while also hinting the Kangaroos will soon announce that AFL games will be played in the city.Speaking on Radio Sport National yesterday, Mr Arocca said it was only a matter of time before North Melbourne played a home-and-away match in Ballarat.His comments followed an announcement on Monday that Hobart's Blundstone Arena would receive a $15 million upgrade from the federal government.Mr Arocca candidly claimed that the opportunity to play football in Ballarat was "bigger" than Tasmania, where the club will host two matches annually over the next three years."It won't be too long before the Kangaroos are playing AFL football out of Ballarat," he said."All we can say about that is stay tuned and hopefully in the next six to 12 months there will be an announcement out of Ballarat that will see North Melbourne play out of there too."The Ballarat City Council last year committed to a redevelopment of the Eureka Stadium precinct as a community and sporting hub.The project has also received significant support through The Courier's Think Big Ballarat campaign.In last year's state election campaign, the Labor Government pledged $30 million for a major upgrade to Eureka Stadium in a bid to host AFL games in Ballarat.However, it lost the election and the current state government is yet to commit to the project.Yesterday, Arocca said it seemed an obvious choice for a government to invest heavily in building an AFL-sized stadium in the city."We believe that any government that doesn't put $75 million to $100 million to a stadium in Ballarat has rocks in their head," he said.North Melbourne last week announced it would again hold its community camp in Ballarat in February for the fourth year in a row.Ballarat will host its first pre-season NAB Cup fixture match between North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs on Sunday, March 11.