NORTH Melbourne chief executive Eugene Arocca is confident the club will be returned to its members at an extraordinary general meeting on Wednesday night.
The Kangaroos have held a complex shareholder structure since the eighties, an arrangement that rescued the club from financial peril, however, significant inroads to soften the influence of those figures have been made by the James Brayshaw-led administration this year.
Knocking back the AFL's invitation to relocate to the Gold Coast and committing to the re-establishment of its Arden Street facilities, North's ongoing support from the League was subject to it reverting to a member-based organisation.
And Arocca said the board is not expecting any opposition to its proposal to remove the club's share capital structure, anticipating a decision to be reached within two hours of the 6.30pm meeting.
"You never say never, but I would think that from the discussions we've had from members and shareholders and the key people that count at this club in terms of their direction, it seems to me that there's overwhelming support for the way the club has conducted itself over the last 12 months," he told Melbourne radio station SEN on Wednesday morning.
"We've spent a lot of time talking to the key shareholders about our objectives and we also believe that we'll create a super coterie of shareholders who will be able to help us.
"Those 16 or 17 shareholders who are going to be made patrons of the club have over 250 years of collective experience as players and directors and chairmen of selectors and board members.
"That's the sort of experience that we want to embrace at the club.
"Hopefully we'll get a great kick along after the event in terms of their input."
Arocca said the meeting, which will be held at Telstra Dome, will consist of "five meetings within meetings" with shareholders and members invited.
He also said it will be a welcome change if the club, as expected, agrees to return decision-making power to the members.
"It's a bit ironic that a club like North Melbourne that prides itself on the egalitarianism and equal quality among everything has actually got an unequal vote," he said.
"We have essentially 400 shareholders who literally control the club by way that a normal club is often run by members, who have meetings at the end of the year and appoint their chairman and board members.
"For the last 20 years at North Melbourne, that has been controlled by the shareholders. The members have had a limited vote and for example, a shareholder might have 200,025 votes opposed to a member, who has one.
"When you've got a clutch of 10 or 15 shareholders who control six million out of eight million votes, and the members only have 22,000 votes, you can see that it's unequal.
"What we're trying to do is revert the club to the members, remove all shares and holdings, and essentially have your ordinary, 11-game home match member at a single-vote, single-member club."
Arocca also suggested a new away strip could be unveiled at the meeting.
