Last month, league chief Gillon McLachlan is understood to have agreed to take over the insurance with his CFO Ian Anderson negotiating an agreement with the AFL's insurers during a recent visit to Britain.

At least three MCG tenants – Melbourne, Collingwood and Richmond – have been pushing for the stadium to lift the kick-to-kick ban for some years. In a favour to the Demons as part of their special agreement with the MCC, Melbourne fans have been allowed onto the ground on one occasion each season in recent years.

Auld said the other major obstacle in lifting the ban was the protection of the MCG playing surface. As a result, each home team is expected to be granted post-game kick-to-kicks on up to three occasions.

"Sunday games and potentially the occasional public holiday Monday, when the ground staff have more time to prepare the surface for the following weekend, are probably the easiest option for us in terms of ground traffic," said Auld. "Sunday is also more of a family day at the footy. We've been talking to [MCC chief executive] Stephen Goughand his team about this for some time and there are a number of hurdles we've managed to

"I think what we are seeing now is a number of things are starting to line up in a manner we hope will see some big improvements for football supporters next year."