Las Vegas was built for Chiefs spectacle. Now Raiders are, too

This is what it was supposed to look like.The gleaming stadium.The Las Vegas Strip shimmering just beyond it.

The stars on the field and the celebrities who figure to turn up to watch them.Two unbeaten teams playing a game that commands attention in a city built to capture it.And, because this particular production needed a villain, here come the hated Chiefs.Welcome to the kind of Sunday that Mark Davis envisioned when he brought the Raiders to Las Vegas.Welcome, potentially, to the biggest Raiders game Allegiant Stadium has hosted.Yes, the January 2022 overtime thriller against the Chargers delivered a playoff berth.

That game carried immediate, season-defining consequences that an October afternoon cannot match.But in terms of everything converging — the setting, the opponent, the star power and the possibility that the Raiders are finally building something worthy of their surroundings — Sunday offers a stage unlike almost anything this franchise has experienced since moving here.The Raiders are 3-0.So are the Chiefs.

First place in the AFC West is available to the winner.For once, the most compelling attraction in the building might be the possibilities surrounding the team that actually calls it home.That has been the missing piece.Davis delivered the stadium.He delivered a permanent home in one of the world’s most recognizable destinations.

He helped transform the Raiders’ business standing and surrounded himself with partners whose resources, experience and connections expanded what the organization could become.Egon Durban.Michael Meldman.

Tom Wagner.Tom Brady.The ownership group grew.

The operation evolved.Sandra Douglass Morgan brought leadership and deep Nevada roots to the presidency.The football needed to catch up.Three victories do not mean it has arrived.

But for the first time in a while, the people building the roster, the people coaching it and the players executing the plan appear to be moving with a shared understanding of where t...