Last year, Major League Soccer announced it was accepting bids for expansion franchises to join its professional league. 12 U.S. cities submitted proposals and spent the better part of 2017 trying to convince the league that they deserve a squad of their own.

San Diego presented a sprawling “SoccerCity” proposal that included a stadium surrounded by greenspace, new housing, retail, and hotels. Phoenix brought soccer legend Didier Drogba into the mix and proposed plans for a new stadium as well.

In the end, MLS passed on those and other proposals and announced Wednesday that they had narrowed their finalist choices down to four cities: Sacramento, Nashville, Cincinnati, and Detroit.

Rendering courtesy of Major League Soccer  

Sacramento has been considered a frontrunner for a franchise for some time now. The City Council approved plans for a 19,621-seat stadium in the Downtown Sacramento Railyards District and the ownership group has already begun pre-construction activities on the site. If built, the stadium will be the cornerstone of a mixed-use development that also includes a Kaiser Permanente hospital complex and roughly 10,000 homes. 

If approved, the city’s USL club, Sacramento Republic FC, will make the jump to MLS instead of creating an entirely new franchise.

Each ownership group will make a formal presentation to MLS Commissioner Don Garber and the league's Expansion Committee on Dec. 6 in New York. After that, a final decision is expected before the start of 2018.