VICTORIA can sustain 10 AFL clubs and North Melbourne is firmly entrenched among them, says chief executive Eugene Arocca.

North will aim to maintain home game averages of over 30,000 in 2009 and Arocca added that healthy attendances for other matches in Victoria should be expected again.

"Victoria drives all the big match returns, the gate returns and the attendance records all come out of [this state]," he said. "That's not going to change in the foreseeable future.

"And I defy anyone who continues to argue that North Melbourne doesn't belong in Victoria with a 30,000 membership, an elite cutting-edge facility, a strong community involvement and an average crowd of over 30,000 for home matches.

"In a time of recession and economic gloom, we're building a facility that will be up with best of them."

Entering his second year at North following an operating profit of over $1 million, Arocca's focus is to complete the Arden Street facility by November 30 and ensure his club remains a finals contender.

And he's confident that the Roos' membership figures can get within striking distance of last year's club record 34,342.

Just under 12,300 have joined to this stage but the number is on par with that reached eight weeks into last year's drive.

Arocca confirmed that the 2008 campaign started three weeks earlier, which is why the date-for-date comparison suggests that support for North has slipped.

On a "red letter day" that sees the club receive final approval to return to member governance for the first time in 22 years, Arocca believes the announcement provides another reason to sign up.

"We could have let the 23rd go by without anyone really knowing or caring about it," he said "We felt it's an historic day.

"For those people in the past who always felt we were going to move interstate, that we were a shareholder-based club, that they couldn't really claim ownership and that they couldn't really have a say in the AGMs, it is a new dawn. People have a real say.

"We've received all sorts of emails and congratulatory letters [since the vote was passed on October 29]. A couple of supporters sent me a bottle of very expensive wine as soon as the vote was had.

"I promised those supporters that I'll only open the bottle of wine when we win a premiership. Hopefully it won't be too long away."

Arocca also voiced his support of the League's continued endeavours to improve the financial arrangement that North, St Kilda, Carlton and the Western Bulldogs have with Telstra Dome, hoping that "2009 represents a new era in stadium deals".