Has the time come for the AFL to spend a slice of the $1.2 billion television rights deal on developing a third and smaller boutique stadium in Melbourne?

On Saturday night we witnessed the unveiling of the AFL's newest baby on the Gold Coast, the state-of-the-art Metricon Stadium. Seating just 25,000, and heavily reliant on corporate packaging, the ground might have given us an insight into the future.

At the same time further north in Darwin, Richmond was forced to sell a home game to wean itself from debt, and in doing so arguably cost itself an automatic four points. Had the game been played in Melbourne, the Tigers would have been better than a 50-50 chance to win.

Earlier in the day, North Melbourne and Sydney played at Etihad Stadium in front of a crowd of just 24,267 fans - short of the 25,000 North needs to break even. So at the weekend the Kangas would have had to sign a cheque for the privilege of using the ground.

For far too long, North Melbourne has been the ring leaders in calling for a better deal at Etihad Stadium, and are drastically pushing to play home games in Hobart, and even Ballarat.

But they are not alone. St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs would certainly be the beneficiaries of a better deal, as would Carlton, who still rely on a yearly handout from the AFL. Ownership of the stadium will be passed over to the league in 2025. By then it might be too late to renegotiate a better deal for the clubs.

The non-Victorian clubs have never been big crowd pullers down in Melbourne, and that situation will only get worse with the introduction of the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney.

The reality is that no club likes to play at a half-empty stadium. A smaller stadium packed to a capacity of 25-30,000 can create an almighty atmosphere. Sides could even create a truly home ground advantage and build on the cauldron-like atmosphere, just like Geelong has at Kardina Park.

Had Australia won the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the state government had proposed to construct a new boutique stadium called E-Gate on a 20-hectre site in Footscray. Another possible site could be to build on the proposed plans for Essendon's new training base at the Tullamarine Airport. An alternate option could be to upgrade an existing training base to AFL standard, such as Carlton's Visy Park or the Bulldogs' Whitten Oval.

The AFL does a great job in administrating the best-run sport in Australia.

But uneconomical stadium deals and floundering attempts to take the game to Darwin and Canberra are just a few minor issues that could be better handled. And now that Andrew Demetriou has $1.18 billion in his pocket, there are plenty of ways to fix these problems.