WHEN Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the AFL would be playing a premiership season game in China last week eyes immediately turned to Melbourne as a potential opponent for Port Adelaide.

That possibility was quashed on Friday morning, when Gold Coast emerged as the club willing to play a home game in Shanghai.

But now, with news the Demons' commitment to play two home games in the Northern Territory could be scaled back to a single match in 2017, the issue becomes, what happens to that second home game?

Let's deal with the Territory situation first.

The NT government has a contract with the AFL that expires this year for two Melbourne home games, one in Darwin and one in Alice Springs.

Negotiations began this month, but there's a serious question mark over the future commitment from Territory taxpayers.  

AFL.com.au understands the game most likely to be chopped is the one in Alice Springs - and Melbourne's current opponent for that fixture is Port Adelaide.

"The question is whether there's one or two games, and that's a question for government budgets and AFL fixturing," Melbourne chief executive Peter Jackson told AFL.com.au.  

"We've been up there for a long while. We've got a talent academy coming in Alice Springs that the AFL has allocated to us, we do work in Darwin and we've got good relationships up there," he said.

"So I can see the future of one game."

The question is, does Melbourne want to bring that potentially spare home game back to the MCG or does it remain up for sale?

The connection to Melbourne and China was an obvious one.

They had played an exhibition game in Shanghai before, and one of their major sponsors is China Southern Airlines.
But in an interview with AFL.com.au this week, Jackson played down that link.

"This idea that Melbourne is the other club, that's news to me at this point in time," Jackson said.

"No one spoke to us before that announcement and I haven't had any formal conversations with the AFL since the announcement.

"It's hard to be interested in something you actually don't know what it is.

"If someone wants to sit down and talk to us about that we'd probably be very willing to talk."

Jackson was skeptical about the chances of a game going ahead in Shanghai next year.

"It's not a bad idea at all, but I don't think it's an idea that can be rushed - 2017 surprises me a little bit.

"The most important thing is that you can't do anything that (will) compromise the performance of your team subsequent to playing a game in China.

"It's potentially not the game in China itself that's the problem, it's the week's that follow that."

Negotiations between the AFL and Northern Territory government are continuing, with a decision expected in the next three months.

The search is on for a suitable stadium in Shanghai.

Gold Coast's commitment to join Port Adelaide for a game in the world's most populous nation brings it one step closer to reality.