North Melbourne chief executive Eugene Arocca has refuted reports a deal has been done which would see the Kangaroos play up to four home games a season at Bellerive Oval from 2012.

“There is no deal. We haven’t sat down with anyone from Tasmania about a deal,” Arocca said.

“We are the front runners as I understand it, but we need to get our heads around what a deal will look like as we haven’t seen anything at this stage.”

“We try to communicate with our members as often as we can. Our members are our most important stakeholders and we will be the first to tell them if a deal is done not the newspapers.

“We haven’t been in discussions with the Tasmania Cricket Association; we have been in discussions with the AFL.”

Arocca was also at pains to put North supporters’ minds at ease in relation to talk of relocation.

“This is not a precursor to moving the North Melbourne Football Club down to Tasmania.

“We see the upside but we don’t want our members to panic and say ‘here we go again’. This club has never been a better position in Melbourne.

“We are looking at another profit this year and from our point of view, it’s all blue sky ahead.”

Arocca said the club would look to Hawthorn’s successful Launceston model if it was given the chance to play games in Hobart.

“There lots of things that need to happen first. We are now at the front of the queue but this club has not spoken to anyone from Tasmania.

“In saying that, we would love the opportunity to play games in such a wonderful city like Hobart with its passionate football supporters.

“Unless it comes out of this club or the AFL, our members should not be panicking about any information that is out there.”

Arocca also responded to recent reports about the State Government’s plans to build a stadium in Ballarat.

“This is not something that will happen in the next year or so. It would be contingent on a number of things including the World Cup.

“Any discussion about Tasmania is not to the exclusion of Ballarat. We invest time and resources in to the City of Ballarat and will continue to do so. We have a great partnership which will continue to grow and develop.”