The action Friday moves forward a push from two wealthy St. Louis families to bring a team to the area.

ST. LOUIS — State commissioners on Friday approved granting a city of St. Louis entity an option to buy land targeted for a Major League Soccer stadium.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission made the move, which was expected, at a meeting in Camdenton.

The Missouri Department of Transportation owns the land, just west of Union Station downtown. The city will have 18 months to buy it at "fair market value." Bob Brendel, special assignments coordinator at MoDOT, said once MoDOT and the city reach a sales agreement, commissioners would have to approve it.

The action Friday moves forward a push from two wealthy St. Louis families to bring a team to the area.

The Taylor and Kavanaugh families would own the team, to be led by Carolyn Kindle Betz, senior vice president of St. Louis-based Enterprise Holdings and executive director of the Enterprise Holdings Foundation, and six other female members of the Taylor family. The family of Jim Kavanaugh, CEO of Worldwide Technology, also of St. Louis, and Andy Taylor, chairman of Enterprise Holdings, would be the only other owners.

The group, calling itself #MLS4THELOU, would be the first in the league’s history to be majority-owned by women, and one of the few in all professional sports.