The final hurdle has been cleared.

After the Orange County Board of Commissioners voted through the approval of funds for a new downtown, multi-purpose soccer stadium last week, all that lies between Orlando City and Major League Soccer (MLS) is a franchise announcement.

But when will that occur, and what does that mean for the Lions’ chances to play in 2015?

Club officials have been in discussion with MLS for the past three seasons, with Orlando City President Phil Rawlins stating a franchise announcement could come before Thanksgiving.

With an announcement possibly upcoming next month, the timeline still stands for entry into the major leagues by Spring 2015.

“Our stated goal has always been 2015 and we’ve always shared that with MLS,” he said. “They’re very aware of our goals a vision of bringing the league here in ’15. We’ll stick to that, it’s what we want to do. The timing is right. Everything points to us being a very successful franchise in MLS and we want to get that started as soon as possible.”

The 2015 start means that Orlando would join New York City FC (NYCFC) as the league’s newest franchises. NCYFC, owned by English Premier League (EPL) giants Manchester City and Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees, was announced earlier in 2013 as MLS’ 20th franchise.

In an extended interview with MLSSoccer.com, Rawlins answered key questions about club branding moving into MLS, including logo redesign and more.

“We’re with Lotto right now and will play in Lotto uniforms again in ’14 in USL PRO, but we’ve had some introductory meetings with Adidas. We’re started to talk about our kits. We’ve got a logo redesign to do. The color purple will very much be ours. We plan on owning that. It’s part of the uniqueness.”

Stay tuned for all the updates on the ‘MLS to Orlando’ effort by visiting OrlandoCitySoccer.com.