North Melbourne could yet fulfil their three-year contract to play AFL games on the Gold Coast despite the threat of more poor attendances such as last night's decade-low crowd at Carrara.
Just 6,354 fans watched North beat West Coast by six points - one of whom turned off a generator which powered a light tower - which made the fixture the lowest-attended since the mid-1990s.
The AFL today said it had only expected a crowd of between 5,000-6,000 given North's commitment last year to stay in Melbourne rather than relocate, plus the fact the Brisbane Lions' game against Carlton was on free-to-air television at the same time.
Despite coach Dean Laidley's indifference to the crowd size, North chief executive Eugene Arocca was today disappointed by the low turn-out, and acknowledged some Gold Coast AFL fans might have made their feelings towards the Kangaroos known by staying home.
But Arocca said North had no plans to seek a fixture change for later this season, and could even agree to play three more games at Carrara in 2009 rather than request them to be switched back to Melbourne.
The Kangaroos are in the second year of a three-season deal to play games on the Gold Coast, and play St Kilda there in round 14 and the Lions in round 18.
Last night's attendance would give North a good case to have next year's games moved to Melbourne, as the AFL would be keen to avoid more low crowds in an expansion zone.
But Arocca said the Kangaroos might yet call Gold Coast their second home in 2009 because of the $1.2 million the club would earn annually hosting matches at Carrara.
"It needs to be looked at, but we're not going to leave a $1.2 million outcome without thinking about it," he said.
"We hosted a game recently against Sydney at Telstra Dome and drew 28,392 and still lost $1,000.
"Ideally we'd like to be playing 11 home games in Melbourne, but there's no point getting three crowds of 30,000 at Telstra Dome and losing money."
Arocca said North intended to honour this year's Carrara contract, and would not seek to have the June 28 game against the Saints switched back to Melbourne even though Telstra Dome was vacant that day.
The other game would likely draw a decent crowd given the Lions will play.
Arocca expected to discuss the issue with the AFL by the end of July, before clubs submitted their preferences to the league for next year's fixture.
Meanwhile, an investigation will be launched into how someone in last night's crowd managed to turn off a generator which supplied power to one of the six light towers, in the final quarter.
"Whether security was around at the time, I don't know," said Jill Lindsay, the AFL's manager of grounds operations.
"The ground manager told me that to push the button to turn the generator off, you'd have to know what effect it would have.
"It's an issue we'll need to follow up with Gold Coast City Council who manage the venue."
The tower's energy source was being supplied by a generator because the transformer was damaged in a storm two months ago.
