North Melbourne's amazing supporters have helped raise a remarkable $1.3 million in just 24-hours, for its bold Arden St redevelopment.
Commencing at midday on Thursday, the campaign had an initial target of $1 million to ensure Arden St is forever, home of the Shinboners.
However a flood of support from the Kangaroos' faithful saw that target obliterated well before the deadline, and an additional $300,000 was donated.
North managing director & CEO Carl Dilena said the success of the campaign is a testament to the club's loyal members and fans.
“The result speaks for itself. Everyone should be immensely proud of what we've been able to achieve in such a short period of time,” Dilena said.
“We had more than 2,800 individual donations which were all quadrupled through our matching-model."
While the groundswell of support from the members was critical, Dilena said the ambitious campaign would not have been possible without the group of generous benefactors that vowed to quadruple every donation until the target was reached.
"What that small group of people allowed us to do is phenomenal," Dilena said.
"We've been a stable and reliable club off the field for the past decade and the faith our people have shown is nothing short of outstanding.
"The past 24-hours demonstrates just how passionate and confident in our future our supporters are."
Dilena reaffirmed the importance of getting phase one of the redevelopment off the ground.
“The club is extremely proud of the way everyone has rallied together to help us cement ourselves in North Melbourne," he said.
"With the growth in the number of our football teams and associated staff, together with the massive redevelopment planned for the local area in the coming years, we need to ensure we have appropriate facilities not only for our people but also the growing community.
"The past 24-hours has been a massive step towards achieving that, but we have a lot of work to do."
North will soon redesign and expand its facility in order to house four teams in 2019.
The club's AFLW team will receive new change rooms, while umpires rooms, new oval lighting, scoreboard, coaches boxes and interchange benches will be in place to bring games back to Arden St.
Dilena is confident the redevelopment will help attract and retain players, coaches and staff.
“We see the redevelopment as crucial to retaining and attracting the best people in the industry on and off the field, which translates to sustained success,” Dilena added.
