Club representatives met with Venues NSW yesterday in a bid to have seating boosted at the northern and southern ends of the stadium by an additional 3500 seats.

Memberships have almost doubled on last season’s figures, soaring past 13,000 as of this morning, with the Red and Black Bloc home-end completely sold out on Monday.

But attempts to accelerate the upgrade will need to be done in consultation with joint tenants Parramatta Eels who are currently in the thick of the rugby league season.

Wanderers’ Executive Chairman Lyall Gorman said: “Any work we do would have to be very respectful of the Eels – absolutely. Part of the whole process of decision-making would be an impact analysis.

“Is there an impact, what does it look like if there is and can you work around it or is it insurmountable?”

The reigning Premiers are looking to replicate their on-field success with more than 3,300 memberships snapped up in just 48 hours after they went on public sale at the beginning of the week.

Ahead of just their second season, the club is on track to claim the second highest membership base in the A-League, after Melbourne Victory, and look the goods to smash their 2012/13 gate average of about 12,500, the fifth highest in the comp.

Venues NSW has about $29 million in the kitty to upgrade the Parramatta Stadium to 24,000-capacity by 2015, but the western Sydney outfit believes that could be too little too late.

A meeting was held between the club and financial consultants today to draw up a contingency model for capping memberships if sales continue to outpace redevelopment plans.

Gorman is confident expansion can be achieved before the season launch in less than three months.

“It would be the extra seating at the northern and southern end and without rushing to do the corporate facilities it would probably take us to about 24,000,” he said.

“I’ve said for a long time, and I believe this, our club can be one of the biggest sporting franchises in any code in Australia.

“We’ve got to continue to work with government and prove our case that we need a greater facility in Western Sydney, whether that’s at Parramatta or somewhere else is up for debate.

“I know that venues NSW is very cognisant of the tremendous input the Wanderers are making to the region.”

The strong demand for memberships had given governments “something serious to consider,” he added.

The club is prepared to play its trump card – the huge economic lift to Parramatta. About 174,000 people were brought to the CBD last season and an extra $18.3 million poured into the lifestyle and entertainment precinct.

As yet no figure has been put on a potential membership cap, but with the club keen to make room for game day walk-ups and away fans, it’s unlikely to go higher than 15,000 under the stadium’s current 20,700 seating restrictions.

Gorman said: “We’ve briefed some consultants and finance people this morning to do some modelling for us so we can make an informed rather than random decision.

“Any good model around the globe will have a cap so there’s a capacity for new fans to come and enjoy the experience and sample it. We certainly want to continue to make sure that other fans can come to our games and enjoy the Wanderland experience.”

Humbled but not surprised was how the football executive described the club’s growth, pointing out it was not entirely due to their on-field success.

“You look at the western Sydney region and it has a population of 2 million people and 186 languages,” he said.

“If you trace where a lot of those languages come from, they’re from Europe, UK, South America, Asia and Africa where football is the first or second language.”

He added:  “This is not just about us. This is about the work that’s been done since 1976 and the National Soccer League. It’s all that fertile ground that we’re so privileged to work with.”

Meanwhile there’s been no off-season for the RBB. The club’s passionate fan base was one of the good news stories of last season and has been hard at work preparing for the campaign ahead.

“It’s literally how big do you want this to grow?” said fired-up RBB member Sean Herrett.

“It’s massive. We’ve organised our preseason matches to attend. We’ve got a lot of new chants organised – the boys and girls are pumped.

“We’ve got families and kids involved now. I’ve had messages from people asking, are our kids allowed in there? Of course, we just want everyone involved. As long as you’re willing to stand and sing, no dramas.”