The AFL's GWS expansion team could use the Sydney Showground as their home, choosing the venue over Blacktown.

A Fairfax report said under the proposal, the ground would undergo a redevelopment that would double its crowd capacity to 25,000.

Sydney and Carlton attracted a capacity crowd of 10,000 to Blacktown Olympic Park last month when the ground hosted a round-one NAB Cup game.

Blacktown and the Showground are the two most obvious options for GWS's home ground when the team become the 18th AFL team in 2012.

The AFL Commission will not vote on the GWS proposal until the team have a confirmed home.

The league are guarded about their stadium negotiations, only saying they are talking to a "range of stakeholders".

"We can't talk too much about the stadium," AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan said last week.

"We're optimistic, but it's a difficult one and stadium redevelopment, they're big projects.

"It's important, but we're going okay.

"There are a few different options - there's a preferred venue, which I can't talk about."

Gold Coast will become the league's 17th team in 2011 and the AFL is determined that it will have an 18th club in greater western Sydney for 2012.

AFL administrators would no doubt prefer to put a licence proposal to the commission by mid-year.

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