NORTH Melbourne could yet fulfil its three-year contract to play AFL games on the Gold Coast, despite the threat of more poor attendances such as Saturday night's decade-low crowd at Carrara.

Only 6354 fans watched North beat West Coast by six points in the first of three matches the club will play on the Gold Coast this season.

The AFL said yesterday it had expected a crowd of between 5000-6000 given North's commitment last year to stay in Melbourne rather than relocate, plus the fact that the Brisbane Lions' game against Carlton was on free-to-air television at the same time.

Despite coach Dean Laidley's indifference to the crowd size, North chief executive Eugene Arocca was disappointed by the low turnout, and acknowledged that some Gold Coast AFL fans may have made their feelings towards the Kangaroos known by staying home.

But Arocca said North had no plans to seek a fixture change for later this season, and could even agree to play three more games at Carrara in 2009 rather than ask for them to be switched back to Melbourne.

The Kangaroos are in the second year of a three-season deal to play games on the Gold Coast, and play St Kilda there in round 14 and the Lions in round 18.

Saturday night's attendance would give North a good case to have next year's games moved to Melbourne, as the AFL would be keen to avoid more low crowds in an expansion zone.

But Arocca said the Kangaroos might yet call Gold Coast their second home in 2009 because of the $1.2 million the club would earn annually hosting matches at Carrara.

"It needs to be looked at, but we're not going to leave a $1.2 million outcome without thinking about it," he said.

"We hosted a game recently against Sydney at Telstra Dome and drew 28,392 and still lost $1000.

"Ideally, we'd like to be playing 11 home games in Melbourne, but there's no point getting three crowds of 30,000 at Telstra Dome and losing money."

Arocca said North would not seek to have the June 28 game against the Saints switched back to Melbourne even though Telstra Dome was vacant that day.

The other game at Carrara was likely to draw a decent crowd as the Lions would be playing.

Arocca expected to discuss the issue with the AFL by the end of July, before clubs submitted their preferences to the league for next year's fixture list.

Meanwhile, an investigation will be launched into how someone in the Carrara crowd managed to turn off a generator that supplied power to one of the six light towers in the final quarter.

"Whether security was around at the time, I don't know," said the AFL's manager of grounds operations, Jill Lindsay.

"The ground manager told me that to push the button to turn the generator off, you'd have to know what effect it would have.

"It's an issue we'll need to follow up with Gold Coast City Council, who manage the venue."

The tower's energy source was being supplied by a generator because the transformer was damaged in a storm two months ago.

AAP