First the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights. Soon, maybe, the Las Vegas Raiders.

Once looked on with disdain by major sports leagues, this gambling city is now just 24 votes away from cashing in on one of the biggest sports jackpots ever.

The Raiders made it official Thursday by filing for relocation from Oakland, Calif., to Las Vegas, the culmination of a whirlwind romance to bring an NFL team to a city that the league had previously gone out of its way to shun because of sports betting fears.

League owners are expected to vote on the move in March, and it's hard to find anyone betting it won't happen.

“I don't know how you can put a price on this,” said Steve Sisolak, a county commissioner who has been involved in the efforts to land the team. “There are only 32 cities that can say they have an NFL team and we will be one of them.”

Actually, there is a price. Tourists will pay increased room taxes to fund $750 million of the cost of a new $1.9 billion stadium as part of a deal helped through a special session of the Nevada Legislature by powerful casino owner Sheldon Adelson's family.

The stadium will be just off the Las Vegas Strip, where the Golden Knights will begin play this fall in a new arena of their own. The expansion hockey team is the first major sports franchise to call the city home.

“Without the Golden Knights I don't know if the Raiders would have thought this was a viable market,” Sisolak said. “They kind of broke the glass ceiling.”

If approved, the move would be the third announced by an NFL team this year. The Rams returned to Los Angeles from St. Louis this season, while the San Diego Chargers will begin play in L.A. next season.

Las Vegas, which has about 2.5 million people in the metropolitan area, would be a smaller market than the Bay Area. But fans from other cities are expected to fill a third of the proposed 65,000-seat stadium, and the team will also be able to draw on Raiders fans from throughout California.

Influential owners such as Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots have spoken favorably about the prospects of a move, and Raiders owner Mark Davis has been lobbying behind the scenes to secure the votes of three-fourths of the 32 owners needed for relocation.

The vote is expected to take place during league meetings March 26-29 in Phoenix.

Davis has said the team will continue to play in Oakland until the Las Vegas stadium is finished, likely by the 2020 season.

Meanwhile, Oakland civic leaders and investors fighting to keep the Raiders from moving insist they are still in the game.

A local investment group that includes Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott said Thursday that it continues to negotiate with government officials, the team and the NFL to build a $1.25?billion, 55,000-seat stadium in Oakland.

“We are in this game and we are playing to win,” Lott's group said in a statement. The statement said the Raiders' filing Thursday was expected and done to “keep its options open in Las Vegas.”

Falcons' Jones ‘ready to go': Atlanta All-Pro receiver Julio Jones missed his second day of practice Thursday with a sprained left toe.

He said it's no big deal. Jones is confident he will be ready Sunday when Atlanta faces the Packers in the NFC championship game.

“I got a little snag, and I was like, ‘Let's go check it out,'?” he said. “But it's fine. I'll be ready to go.”

End zone:Packers wide receiver Davante Adams missed a second day of practice with an ankle injury, and might not know until warmups before Sunday's game whether he'll be able to play. … Atlanta offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan said he plans to talk again with the 49ers about their coaching vacancy, with all signs pointing to his landing the position. The son of former Redskins coach Mike Shanahan interviewed with San Francisco when the Falcons had a bye week during the wild-card round. … Colts quarterback Andrew Luck has undergone surgery on the right shoulder that's bothered him the past two seasons. Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay says Luck will be ready for the 2017 season. … The Bills announced an agreement to hire former Ravens assistant Rick Dennison as their offensive coordinator. Dennison, who spent the past two seasons running the Broncos offense, was the Ravens quarterbacks coach in 2014 during Tyrod Taylor's final season in Baltimore before he signed with the Bills in free agency.