The supporter group, We Are North Melbourne (WANM), will table a motion at the club's annual general meeting on Tuesday night requiring the club to get the approval of 75 per cent of its members if it sought to play more than four home games a year outside Victoria.
WANM's motion to amend the club's constitution has been publicly supported by former North administrators Ron Joseph and Eugene Arocca.
North chairman James Brayshaw and CEO Carl Dilena oppose the proposed motion, saying it would unduly restrict the Roos' ability to grow the club commercially.
Brayshaw has also given a "cast-iron guarantee" North will not relocate while he is chairman, while Dilena said the club would be happy to consider introducing constitutional safeguards against relocation.
Despite these assurances, WANM spokesman John Raleigh told AFL.com.au more had to be done to shore up North's future.
"The reason we put the limit at four (home games outside Victoria) is that the most likely threat to North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, and possibly even St Kilda and Melbourne, will be that they gradually play more and more games outside Melbourne and their Melbourne base weakens and then they become very susceptible to the relocation," Raleigh said.
"But if [Brayshaw] comes up and says there will be no relocation without a member vote and relocation means moving your headquarters physically from one state to another, that's too late – you're gone.
"If we're playing nine games in Tasmania and two in Melbourne for a few years … we'll be gone. You weaken someone from within before you can knock them from without."
Raleigh said WANM's motion had been partly motivated by the current North board's negotiations with the Tasmanian Government in late 2010 to play seven games a year in Tasmania.
That proposed deal was ultimately scuttled when the Tasmanian Government chose to renew its deal for Hawthorn to play four games a year in Launceston, with North subsequently agreeing to play two games a year in Hobart from 2012-14.
Raleigh said WANM had followed the Hawthorn model in setting four interstate games as its yearly limit, saying the Hawks had shown that by committing to an interstate region on that scale clubs could grow both in their traditional and new homes.
Raleigh was also confident North was better placed now to tap into the Hobart than was in the interstate markets it explored from 1998-2007, in Sydney, Canberra and the Gold Coast.
"At that time, we were always seen as the club who was going to be relocated and it's difficult to attract new members if they see you dying," Raleigh said.
"But Hawthorn has shown you can play four games and grow and be strong and not be vulnerable to relocation.
"And let's face it Hawthorn in 1996 were in the same situation that we were in the early part of the last decade.
"They weren't a strong club. So the parallels there we think are very good."
For WANM's motion to be successful on Tuesday night, at least 75 per cent of voting North members need to approve it.
Raleigh conceded this would be a "big ask".
Nick Bowen covers North Melbourne news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nick
