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Photographer: Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images Photographer: Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images

Billionaire David Tepper, owner of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, is one step closer to adding another sports team to his portfolio.

Major League Soccer’s board of governors agreed Thursday to move forward on the final steps toward granting the league’s latest expansion team to Charlotte, North Carolina, a bid led by Tepper. The hedge fund titan has agreed to pay a roughly $300 million expansion fee, according to a person familiar with the deal.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber addressed the developments Thursday in New York. He said the board authorized the league’s expansion committee to enter what he expects to be final negotiations with Tepper.

Some details still need to be hammered out. The team doesn’t have a name yet. And the league wants to make sure its home park -- the 75,000-seat Bank of America Stadium, where the Panthers play -- will be ready for soccer. Tepper acquired the Panthers in a record $2.3 billion deal last year.

“Charlotte is one of the fastest-growing cities in our country -- the market is continuing to expand,” Garber said. “Lots of jobs, lots of opportunities, great sports market, great soccer market. All that has us very motivated to try and finalize something.”

The team would ideally join MLS in 2021, Garber said, alongside a new franchise in Austin, Texas. Clubs in St. Louis and Sacramento, California, will join the following year. The league, which had 12 teams in 2006, is now planning to have 30 by 2022.

Soaring Fees

That growth has come with a hefty increase in expansion fees. When Toronto FC joined in 2007, the expansion fee was $10 million. In 2014, the new Los Angeles team paid $110 million. Six weeks ago, the group that was awarded the Sacramento franchise agreed to pay $200 million.

The final negotiations with Tepper come a week after MLS added another high-powered investor. Silicon Valley veteran Meg Whitman invested $100 million in FC Cincinnati, a deal that valued that club at $500 million.

Tepper has requested $100 million in taxpayer money to help pay for a new training facility and for improvements to the Panthers stadium, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.

Other cities in contention for the 30th MLS franchise include Las Vegas and Phoenix.