ST KILDA president Rod Butterss hopes the Saints can avoid relocation and remain at their Moorabbin home base, believing the differences between the football club and local council can be resolved.

Last week, the club's chief executive, Archie Fraser, said the impasse between St Kilda and the City of Kingston — which centres on the movement of the football club's 83 gaming machines — was so irreconcilable that plans to redevelop the Moorabbin ground had been scrapped.

But last night, after returning from an overseas trip and speaking at his president's dinner before St Kilda played Geelong, Butterss suggested a Saints' walkout was not a fait accompli.

"Moorabbin is near and dear to us and we'll hang in there with it and hopefully we'll be able to stay there," he said.

"I know the club, in the last week, came out and indicated that we may well just have to leave Moorabbin, and that would be a great shame because Moorabbin is our home and we've been there for in excess of 40 years.

"Like all negotiations, there are times when you feel as though you need to walk away from the table. However, if we walk away from the table and/or if the council walks away from the table, we lose out, the local community loses out, in fact everyone loses out. So it seems to me that it's a case where common sense needs to prevail.

"The silly thing is that if we were forced to leave Moorabbin, we would still maintain the 33-year lease, we would still maintain our 83 gaming machines, we would still maintain the current surrounds. So fundamentally, nothing changes."

The council has not approved the transfer of the 83 machines from the Saints' current Linton Street headquarters to South Road, which, according to plans, would have been the site of the new social club base.

"I hope on this occasion that common sense prevails and that both parties can sit down and work out a deal which is good for all the parties concerned," Butterss said.

"Maybe tomorrow morning, we'll get up … and get back to that table. Hopefully. And I extend the invitation to the Kingston Council to do likewise, and let's put our differences aside and let's build a facility that benefits the St Kilda Football Club … and of course the council."