The Bulldogs met with community leaders and Committee for Ballarat members on Monday both to strengthen existing community engagement and find new avenues to ensure the club remained far more than a pop-up show a couple of times during the AFL season.

This comes on the back of a three-year partnership extension announced late last year between the Bulldogs, City of Ballarat and the Victorian government to keep AFL games in Ballarat until at least 2024.

Bulldogs' chief commercial and strategy officer Kon Karavias said the partnership had gone from strength to strength the past five years, and now was a chance to double that down.

"Key to that is to come and listen to what people in Ballarat want, rather than assume we known the answers," Mr Karavias said.

"We want to listen to key stakeholders and unlock additional opportunities together...Ballarat business is probably an area we haven't spent a lot of time in. How can we actively turn a premier regional stadium into pushing more content there for people to go and enjoy."

As part of the visit, Mars Wrigley announced a further two years' naming rights to have Mars Stadium remain at Northern Oval.

Mars Wrigley general manager Andrew Leakey said Ballarat employees who live and work in the region got a "real kick" out of Mars having such a role in major events. The company has been part of the community for more than 40 years and has held stadium naming rights since major redevelopment works were complete in 2017.

Bulldogs chief executive officer Ameet Bains said the club genuinely and deeply valued such community partnerships.

Mr Bains told The Courier a big part of this was the club-sponsored community development programs, including holistic health promotion Sons of the West, its sister Daughters of the West, a youth leadership project and the Ballarat-exclusive Bulldogs Read for children's literacy.

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He too said the club hoped to follow such community-led models in collaborating on new opportunities with Ballarat's business community.

"The Ballarat community now genuinely is our second home," Mr Bains said.

Committee for Ballarat board member Paul O'Donohue, who is also Central Highlands Water managing director, said the Bulldogs had proven they were more than just a two-game-a-year commitment and it was important to build on this.

The Bulldogs are back in action at Mars Stadium for a likely round 10 AFLW fixture next month.

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