The positive forecast is despite the recent pains created by the club's deal with home venue Docklands, where below-par match attendances see the club write stadium management cheques for as much as $100,000.
Chairman James Brayshaw said he wasn't surprised by the strength of support for North after it posted a record membership total of 34,342 in 2008.
But Brayshaw, who led the Roos' rally to stay in Melbourne at the end of 2007, noted there were some doubters.
"At that time a lot of people said, 'Well, that will be a one-off. There's no way you'll be able to maintain that membership figure. It'll just crash straight back down to the 24,000 it was before'," he said.
"We understood that a lot of great people joined last year to give us a hand. There was always going to be an amount of them who gave us the one-year membership and then said, 'Right, you're on your own'.
"Given the economic climate and the fact that some of the heat's gone out of that 'save North Melbourne' message, it's now all about what a great story it is that the club's growing the way it is.
"This footy club from now on should look at 30,000 as an absolute minimum."
North has signed 6000 new members to draw within 150 of the 30,000 mark but the need to improve crowd numbers has swelled in the last month with attendances of 14,342 (against Port Adelaide) and 15,436 (Fremantle).
It hosts a third non-Victorian club, the Brisbane Lions, on Saturday afternoon and Brayshaw said it was vital that members understood the importance of turning up to games.
He admitted the run of fixtures with the Power, Fremantle and Lions had encouraged some early concern.
"They were always going to be low-drawing games," he said. "As soon as we saw the draw with those [home] games in a row ... we knew that the crowds were going to drop down there.
"All clubs have drop-off rates. You don't notice it with the bigger clubs because their crowds go from 50 [thousand] to 32 [thousand] and 32's still a good crowd.
"The thing I always say to North Melbourne people is you've got to join up and you've got to turn up."
Brayshaw added weight to Visy Park becoming Melbourne's third stadium for matches expected to pull smaller crowds.
"The reality is we're going to get western Sydney and Gold Coast coming in, in the next two or three years," he said. "When they come down to Melbourne, they're the sort of crowds that they're going to attract as well.
"I think Visy Park's the perfect alternative. Spend the money, get it up to 2009 spec and we'll happily play games against all of those clubs there."
Brayshaw reiterated this year's profit would be a "herculean performance" and a credit to chief executive Eugene Arocca and his staff.
North made an operating profit of more than $1 million last year but increased its football department spending by $750,000 for 2009.
