The Philadelphia Inquirer has a report this morning quoting MLS sources as saying that expansion talks with representatives of the Philadelphia expansion effort have "progressed past 'if' and on to 'how' and 'when' ".

ACCORDING TO THE STORY "Local representatives have been meeting with senior MLS executives at league offices in New York" for the past two weeks and that "in the last two days, the local owner-investors completed their review of the draft version of the expansion agreement between MLS and the team"

A league source, requesting anonymity, was quoted as saying "It's definitely Philly....it's the market size, the ownership group. These are wealthy people. They're going to be strong owners."

There's no mention of whether this might negate the recent rumblings that 2009 was not going to be possible. Clearly both sides have an incentive to try and make that happen, and if an announcement is indeed only days away, perhaps the desire for a 2009 inauguration is pushing both sides to get the deal done now.