Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber has circled July on the calendar. That’s when he wants Minnesota United FC’s stadium plans — specifically the financing — in place for an expansion franchise.

If that happens, Garber said Wednesday, a Minnesota MLS team could start playing in 2017. If it doesn’t happen …

“We would then, as an ownership group, take a step back and decide whether we wanted to come to Minnesota,” Garber said.

“We have other options around the country, some of which with very detailed soccer-stadium plans, and we would have to make that decision at that time.”

Garber was in Minneapolis to announce that Minnesota has been chosen as the next expansion spot as MLS expands from 20 to 24 teams by 2020.

The plan is for Minnesota United FC, which plays in the second-tier North American Soccer League, to move up a class and join MLS.

“We have confidence that they will get their stadium project completed, and if we didn’t have confidence in them, we wouldn’t be here,” Garber said.

The primary reason for his optimism, Garber said, is United’s ownership group. Headed by former UnitedHealth Group executive Bill McGuire, it includes Minnesota Twins owners Jim and Bob Pohlad and Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor.

“This is an ownership group that’s embedded in the community and has done this before both on the sports and on the civic and community side,” Garber said. “They own the land. They have a grand vision and a good strategy to get it done.”

Wednesday’s announcement was made at the Twins’ Target Field, which would be the neighbor to an outdoor, soccer-specific stadium with seating for about 18,000. The price tag: $150 million to $200 million.

“We haven’t talked to anybody about funding at all,” McGuire said.

Some state lawmakers, including Gov. Mark Dayton, have said they have no interest in using public money to help build another sports stadium. Since 2000, the state has helped build venues for the Twins, which cost a total of $545 million, the University of Minnesota football team ($303 million) and the Vikings (a $1 billion stadium set to open in fall 2016).

McGuire said he has discussed his club and its future “with three or four people” at the state Capitol, but he said that has been the extent of the conversations.

He said there is no decision yet on whether the team will request state help for a stadium.

“We haven’t developed our plans yet in how to approach it,” McGuire said. “We recognize anything like this, as I’ve said, you put a building project in the middle of a city, you are embarking on a partnership. We will be talking to people who we think have a vested interest in this and making it everything it could be.”

Dayton reiterated Wednesday the broad opposition to a direct subsidy but didn’t close the door on other methods of assistance. Dayton said it’s possible the state transportation department or county governments would help with roads or other infrastructure improvements in the vicinity of a stadium.

“If there’s another exit ramp or widening of an exit ramp necessary to accommodate the increased flow of traffic, that’s something we do for project expansions all over the state,” Dayton said. “And if it fits within that norm – it’s premature, but – that is something in my mind that could be considered.”

United’s stadium plans were a major draw for MLS, which has 15 teams playing in similar venues. The Vikings’ bid included plans for the team to play in a modified, 65,000-seat stadium.

United president Nick Rogers said the July timeline is helpful.

“You like to give yourself milestones so you stay on track,” Rogers said. “There is no doubt in my mind that we will get a facility built.”

Other interested parties include groups from Sacramento, Las Vegas, San Antonio and St. Louis.

McGuire said stadium plans will be determined in the “next several months.”

“We will probably have things pretty well laid out in our mind in what we think it could look like and should look like and how we are going to get there,” McGuire said.

McGuire would not say whether he and his partners would fund the stadium privately.

“We are looking at the best way to do this in partnership with the community,” McGuire said. “What that means, I can’t say yet.”

Miami’s expansion bid has floundered because it can’t find land on which to build; that won’t be an issue for United.

“We have the option to use the land,” McGuire said.

McGuire believes there is a misunderstanding about what it takes to build a new soccer stadium, which has cost between $100 million and $200 million in other locations — substantially less than a major league baseball or NFL stadium.

“In a way, it’s real money, but it’s a fraction of” NFL stadiums, he said. “I think people are confused or don’t really understand what we might even be talking about when we talk about the scope and what all can come out of it.”

McGuire said a stadium would help spur economic growth with residential and commercial space in what is now a light-industrial section of Minneapolis.

“That’s this thing of being anchor for the area and then seeing some new development — do things in concert that will impact the area in a positive way,” he said, “If we can accomplish that, we will all feel very good.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Follow Andy Greder at twitter.com/andygreder.