LAS VEGAS >> Like a late-night dance club grooving to the latest Drake cut, the Las Vegas Strip was thumping last week to the rhythmic beat of a city running 24/7 on Red Bull.

Plush hotels and casinos whispered enticingly into the ears and wallets of prospective customers, luring them in with the promise of rich jackpots, the spoils of luxurious pools and spas, world-class dining served up by renowned chefs and posh night clubs.

Meanwhile, enormous video screens with full-color, high-resolution LED displays advertised upcoming shows ranging from Pitbull to Jennifer Lopez to George Lopez to Rod Stewart.

Las Vegas is nothing if not elastic, its ability to invent and re-invent itself over the years to satisfy ever-changing entertainment taste buds, the fuel that keeps its multi-billion dollar tourism engine humming.

But things are about to get even hotter.

Sin City is once again on the verge of re-casting itself, this time as a professional sports town.

The NHL announced last month it will drop anchor in Vegas beginning in 2017, when an expansion team will open in the brand new T-Mobile Arena next to the MGM Grand.

In doing so, the NHL becomes the first major professional sports league to look beyond the decades-old gambling stigma against Las Vegas and embrace it as a growing, thriving market.

“Breaking through that glass ceiling,” is how Clark County commissioner Steve Sisolak put it. “It was a game-changer for us. And it got all the other balls rolling.”

As in Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred speaking favorably about Las Vegas as a potential MLB home down the road.

Or NBA commissioner Adam Silver touting Las Vegas as a viable market, and insisting he will monitor the NHL’s venture into Southern Nevada.

And most importantly, the NFL is beckoning.

Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis has pledged $500 million toward a proposed new stadium in Las Vegas and a firm commitment to move there pending Nevada approving its share of the $1.4 billion financing on the 65.000-seat, domed venue.

“I’m focused on Las Vegas,” Davis declared.

Davis and his partners — Sheldon Adelson and Ed Roski of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Majestic Reality, the two developers behind the stadium — are working feverishly with Las Vegas leaders and the Southern Nevada Tourism and Infrastructure Committee to put a financing agreement in front of Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval in time for Sandoval to call a special session for state legislatures in August.

Under the proposal pushed by Adelson, Roski and Davis, Nevada would kick in $750 million – or half of the financing – though a tourism and hotel tax. The SNTIC countered with a proposal calling for $550 million to be raised publicly, with Davis contributing $500 million and the Sands and Majestic combining to pitch in $400 million.

Although the SNTIC proposal was met with disapproval from the Raiders and developers, all sides agreed there is enough time and motivation to meet in the middle and push a stadium deal over the goal line.

There are hurdles left to clear — including zeroing in on one of four possible stadium sites and agreeing on financing for both the stadium and expansion to the Las Vegas Convention Center. And with a July deadline looming to finalize funding plans for both projects, an ominous clock is ticking in the background.

But a path is being cleared to secure a suitable financing plan to present to the governor in the next month.

“I think I speak on behalf of all the committee and the community that we would like to see both of these major projects move forward,” said Steve Hill, the chairman of the SNTIC, which is tasked with making a financing recommendation to Gov. Sandoval.

Hill reports directly to Sandoval as the Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, and with the SNTIC meeting again July 11 and 28, there is growing motivation to wrap this up.

“We are nearing the end of this process, but we certainly have (four) more weeks in order to resolve any differences we have,” Hill said. “And it’s my sense, and most will agree, that everyone involved in this conversation is trying to work to make both of these major projects happen.”

If so, the Raiders could push for relocation to Las Vegas by early next year.

“If they approve financing, we are moving there,” said Davis, who would need 24 votes from his fellow NFL owners to be approved for relocation.

Or, as Sisolak said: “I think if we can make it happen, there is a good possibility this will work.”

Re-casting itself indeed.

“These are very, very exciting times for Las Vegas,” said Sisolak, also a member of SNTIC. “We’re on the verge of doing something transformational. Now we just have to work together to get it to the finish line.”

Of course, in keeping with the Las Vegas backdrop, success relies on Nevada not blowing one of the craziest poker hands to come down the pike in years.

Thanks to a remarkable convergence of events — ranging from planned, coincidental, shrewdly plotted, politically motivated to pure dumb luck — Las Vegas is holding a straight flush of sorts.

“We have a commitment from an NFL team to move here if we get a stadium plan approved,” said Andy Abboud, the Sands Corp. stadium point man. “Think about that for a second.”

His point is clear.

Los Angeles went 23 years without the NFL after the Rams and Raiders left in 1994, and stadium plan after stadium plan came and went without a commitment from a team to move here.

Remember Farmers Field?

How about City of Industry?

These were stadium plans that were privately financed and politically approved. But without an agreement from an NFL team, both projects died on the vine.

Yet here are the Raiders, doubling down on Las Vegas with a firm commitment after the NHL planted its flag there.

It’s turned a skeptical market scarred by getting played by some sports leagues over the years, or by the indifference from others, into a city of believers.

“And without that confidence we wouldn’t be doing this anymore, frankly,” Sisolak said. “You hear about this stuff and it’s not real, it’s just a dream or someone’s idea. But if we weren’t confident that everyone was serious and this was a legitimate possibility we would have moved onto other things. I have too many other things to do with my time, as do the other committee members. But I believe it’s real, and I will invest the necessary time and effort into seeing this though one way or another.”

How it all happened almost defies logic.

After years of waging a futile battle to secure a new stadium plan in Oakland, the Raiders have lost faith anything will get done in the Bay Area. And with Oakland putting up just a minimal fight to keep them, the NFL has deemed the Silver and Black eligible to relocate.

The Raiders have an option to join the Rams in Inglewood at some point — remember, their joint stadium push with the San Chargers in Carson last year was edged out by the Rams’ Inglewood bid — but they stand second in line to the Chargers to join the Rams, and there are no guarantees anything will ever come to fruition.

Rather than waiting to secure their future — or rely on the fate of another team to help define it — the Raiders are moving forward with Las Vegas, where the deep pockets of Adelson and Roski and other Vegas heavy hitters, coupled with a growing market able to tap into a healthy tourism industry for financing, stand poised to help them solidify their long-term home.

“It’s really a tremendous opportunity,” Davis said. “A fresh start in a growing market that’s easily accessible to areas of the country that are hot-beds for Raider Nation. But not just that, we want to be a member of the community. We want to build a strong, local fan base, and we believe we’ll do just that. And when people think about Las Vegas, it won’t just be for entertainment and vacations and casinos. They’ll think about the Raiders. The Las Vegas Raiders. That’s a game-changer in so many ways.”

Meanwhile, there is motivation within the NFL to grant the Raiders their wish.

The Rams would prefer to have the L.A. market to themselves, so it makes sense for them to support a Raiders move to Nevada. And it might take years for the Chargers to sort out their stadium situation in San Diego, so the Raiders giving up their spot in L.A. to move to Vegas allows the Chargers to patiently pursue their San Diego options without losing their spot in L.A.

On top of that, numerous NFL sources have outlined a preferred scenario in which a second spot remains open in Los Angeles to use as leverage in New Orleans, Buffalo and Jacksonville to get new stadium deals done there.

The intricate game of connect the dots leads the Raiders right to Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, with cities and states growing more and more resistant to contributing public financing to professional stadiums, if Nevada and Las Vegas kick in $550 to $750 million on a stadium, that will get the attention of the NFL.

Finally, if you’re the Raiders, would you rather be a tenant in Inglewood with the Rams while shelling out a $550 million relocation fee, or have Las Vegas to yourself while playing in a stadium you helped design and build from beginning to end?

For all those reasons, the Raiders have turned their attention to Las Vegas.

And there are compelling reasons why Las Vegas appears poised to seize the opportunity.

Not only from a local standpoint — Abboud said he has no doubt the growing Las Vegas region can support an NFL team, and the expansion hockey team has already received more than 15,000 deposits for season tickets — but also as an attractive destination point able to lure Raiders fans from the West Coast and beyond 10 weekends a year.

Locally, Las Vegas boasts more than 2.1 million residents, and in 2015 more than 42 million tourists visited there according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

In the past year alone, Las Vegas grew by 2.1 percent, making it the fifth-fastest growing metropolitan area in the nation, according to U.S. Census Bureau, and 2,061 new business opened in the region.

With numbers like that, it’s no wonder the NHL is taking the plunge and the Raiders might soon follow.

The key now is seizing an opportunity that fell into Las Vegas’ lap when the Raiders offered a commitment.

“There is no other discussion without that, and it’s the hardest of all of them to get,” Sisolak said. “That’s why people are so anxious to make this happen. … The vast majority of this committee understands this is an opportunity that came along right now. And it’s an opportunity that might never be here again.

“And if it goes south and it doesn’t happen, one, there might not be another opportunity to come along for awhile, and two, if someone does come along with an opportunity, they might just say ‘Well, they couldn’t close the last one, what’s to say they’ll close this opportunity?’ That would be two strikes against us.”

For now, Las Vegas is holding a straight flush. And if they play their cards right, they just might end up an NFL city soon.