North Melbourne CEO Eugene Arocca said the club would be "bitterly disappointed" if less than 30,000 people turned up for Saturday's clash against Melbourne at the MCG.

Coach Dean Laidley also issued a call to arms to the Kangaroos faithful, saying a good roll-up would send a message to the AFL that they can survive and thrive in Melbourne.

The game was originally scheduled to be played at Carrara but the league transferred it to the MCG after the club rejected an offer to relocate to the Gold Coast.

"It's enormous for our footy club to get the supporters there for the match that we brought back from the Gold Coast, Laidley said.

"If you are not a member, come along, bring some friends, bring some family, we want to get 30 or 40,000 people there and show the AFL and the football public in general we are really here to stay."

Arocca said the transfer deal brokered by the Kangaroos and the AFL protects the `Roos from making a loss.

But he said the club intended to make a profit from the match.

"Commercially we're not going to lose, but we actually want to make money out of it," Arocca said. "We would be bitterly disappointed if we got less than 30,000.

"We would be moderately disappointed if we got 30,000 and anything over 30,000 would be a good result."

Last year in round 17, the two sides attracted a crowd of 20,187 at Telstra Dome, while in round nine, 30,662 turned up for the match.

In 2006, around 30,000 attended both home and away fixtures.

Arocca said the club would break even if 30,000 turned up on Saturday.

But with such a high membership take-up this year, Arocca conceded the number of paying fans as well as Melbourne supporters who are not MCC members determined if the Roos would be in the black.

To illustrate the Roos' poor return from their stadium deals, Arocca revealed the club only made $150,000 from their first home match against Essendon at Telstra Dome.

"I think it's ridiculous that Melbourne Storm can play at Telstra Dome in front of 20,000 people and make a profit and we play at Telstra Dome fill it - we had 49,800 people - and we made about 150,000.

"That's not a lot of money when you full a stadium.

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