Four years ago, professional soccer in Minnesota was in peril. Now, Major League Soccer has circled the Twin Cities as an ideal market.

The top U.S. pro soccer league announced Monday that it is having “advanced discussions” with local pro team United FC on a deal to become an expansion franchise as soon as 2018.

“Great news,” said Alan Willey, an English player who came to Minnesota to play for the Kicks and Strikers, early incarnations of United FC. “It gets soccer in the big time.”

In 2011, the team was called the Stars and owned by its league, the second-tier North American Soccer League, and was struggling to find a local owner. Former UnitedHealth Group executive Bill McGuire bought the club and rebranded it as United FC in 2013.

On Monday, United appeared to beat out the Minnesota Vikings and a group from Sacramento, Calif., for the last expansion franchise in MLS’ plans to expand from 20 to 24 teams.

McGuire and his partners, Twins owner Jim Pohlad and Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, will have to pay a franchise fee expected to be $100 million and then, in all likelihood, find a way to privately fund a soccer-specific, outdoor stadium that could cost $150 million.

Those plans target a downtown Minneapolis site near the Twins’ Target Field and the light rail line and appear to be what gave the United group a leg up on the competition. The Vikings wanted the team to play in their indoor football stadium, set to open in fall of 2016.

Monday’s news drew immediate deflections from state lawmakers disinclined to hand out public money for a stadium after helping fund the Twins’ and Vikings’ new homes.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said MLS “shouldn’t even come by” the Capitol, a sentiment echoed in a release from Gov. Mark Dayton.

“I commend the Minnesotans, who have been working to secure a Major League Soccer franchise,” Dayton said. “However, I am told by legislative leaders that there is very little support for state assistance in building another pro sports stadium. Thus, I would advise that any new soccer stadium would need to be privately financed.”

An announcement from MLS formerly awarding Minnesota the franchise is expected soon.

“We’re entering a golden age of Minnesota soccer,” said Joe Leyba, who founded a group called MLS4MN in the dark days of 2011.

In the 1970s, the Minnesota Kicks drew more than 30,000 fans a game to the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington. In 1984, the Strikers averaged more than 14,000 in their one season at the Metrodome. The Thunder, a later pro soccer iteration, drew less interest but kept a coterie of diehards who started fan group the Dark Cloud, which now supports United.

“We were concerned that the thing we rally around would disappear,” Leyba said. “If we’re going to fight, let’s go for Major League Soccer. In the expansion conversations, Minnesota was not in the mix. No one was talking about what a great soccer market it was.”

Leyba had seen the local club draw bigger crowds when MLS teams came to play the Stars in the U.S. Open Cup, a nationwide tournament for all domestic pro teams, and started a website and began advocating for an expansion club with league leadership and local politicians, including Dayton and then-Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.

Last season, United drew an average of 6,500 fans per game, with two sellouts of 8,000, to the National Sports Center. But an International Champions Cup game between English Premier League champions Manchester City FC and Greece’s Super League titlist Olympiacos drew 34,000 to TCF Stadium in August.

Playing its 19th season, MLS set an attendance record with an average crowd of 19,149 among its 19 teams. The Seattle Sounders, who play in the Seahawks’ NFL stadium, averaged a league-high 43,734.

Chivas USA, which played in Carson, Calif., was dumped by MLS after averaging fewer than 8,000 fans last season. It was the only MLS club to average less than 15,000 fans per match.

United and MLS are targeting a capacity about 18,000 for a stadium, and Leyba said McGuire has the partners to privately fund it.

“He has brought in stakeholders that will be able to pull off the stadium without the public side,” Leyba said. “If they do it privately, that’s another reason to embrace the team. That’s what people always want: Why don’t they build their own stadium? If they do that, you have to applaud them.”

MLS prefers its teams play on natural grass in soccer-specific stadiums that seat about 20,000 fans. United’s stadium plan was a chief reason it beat out the Vikings, which planned for the MLS team to play on artificial turf in its large, multipurpose stadium.

“It’s just not the same playing on (artificial grass),” said Willey, who will provide color commentary during United’s TV broadcasts this season. “It’s like asking the Wild to play on rollerblades. It just doesn’t feel right.”

For United to take the step from NASL to MLS, it will have to invest in marquee names, Willey said. For example, the Los Angeles Galaxy signed English national team midfielder and former Liverpool player Steven Gerrard in January.

“I’m not sure what they are going to do,” Willey said, “but I’m sure that’s what they are looking at: What big names can they bring in?”

Questions remain about the exact future of soccer in Minnesota, but a foundation in MLS appears to be settling in.

Follow Andy Greder at twitter.com/andygreder.