Minnesota United FC appears to be Major League Soccer’s front-runner for an expansion franchise.

According to sources in a report from the blog Northern Pitch, MLS has provided written support for United’s efforts to build an outdoor stadium in downtown Minneapolis. Northern Pitch also said United owner Bill McGuire has secured an option to purchase property for the stadium near Target Field.

United, which plays in the second-division North American Soccer League, and the Minnesota Vikings have been vying independently to field an expansion MLS franchise since at least last year. The 20-team league’s goal is to reach 24 teams by 2020.

Representatives for United, the Vikings and a group each from Las Vegas and Sacramento, Calif., presented proposals to MLS leaders in New York in November.

United and the Vikings both declined to comment on the report.

MLS spokesman Dan Courtemanche said the league has met with the four groups mentioned as well as representatives from San Antonio and St. Louis.

“We remain on track to announce the next MLS expansion market in the next 30-45 days,” Courtemanche said in an email to the Pioneer Press. “No specific date for an expansion announcement has been set.”

The timeline appears to have advanced since MLS Commissioner Don Garber’s comments Sunday. “In the next 45 to 60 days, without doubt, the next round will be announced,” Garber said on ESPN.

At the MLS Cup in early December, the league said its goal was to announce the location of an expansion franchise within the first six months of this year.

Garber spoke positively about Minnesota’s team in the NASL in late February.

“There’s enormous momentum in that market,” Garber told Sports Illustrated. “They’ve got a great NASL team (Minnesota United). There’s a really cool dynamic happening in the downtown area. There’s a ton of millennials who are moving in there. There’s a lot of corporations and young people, particularly people from many different countries, who are moving to that part of the country, so we think Minneapolis would be a great market.”

MLS removed Las Vegas from the list of possible expansion sites in mid-February. Garber said representatives from St. Louis, Sacramento and San Antonio were in Orlando for Sunday’s debut of new expansion team Orlando City FC.

“There is so much interest in expanding in our league,” Garber said. “We have to go about it carefully, and we got think about putting a plan together that ultimately is going to allow us to capture this enormous momentum that we’ve been able to achieve for our fans for our 20th year.”

The momentum was seen Sunday with 62,510 fans coming out to the Citrus Bowl for Orlando City FC, an expansion team that came to MLS from the lower-tier league USL Pro.

The Atlanta expansion team, which will begin play in 2017, has established more than 19,000 reserved seats in the stadium it will share with the NFL’s Falcons.

Follow Andy Greder at twitter.com/andygreder.