A US major league team in Las Vegas is closer to reality as the ownership group of a prospective Las Vegas franchise announced on Wednesday afternoon that the NHL has invited them to participate in the second phase of the expansion application process, CBSSports reports.

"We are pleased to report that the NHL has invited us to participate in Phase II of the application process," the group's statement read. "In this phase, we will be providing the League with additional information requested by it, including information about the Las Vegas market. We will also be permitted access to information provided by the League that it deems important to us. We are hopeful that at the conclusion of this phase the league will invite us to participate in Phase III."

As noted by the CBSSports report, the first phase of the process was the formal application, which the group led by Bill Foley submitted back on July 20. The application included a fee of $10 million, $2 million of which was non-refundable. The fee was put in place to sort the serious bidders from pretenders during the process.

The report also points out that during Phase II, the NHL will dive deeper into the ownership group to find out their plans for financing (which includes their ability to pay the expansion fee"”a number that could reportedly reach $500 million), their ability to build an arena and sustain the franchise, while also gathering all pertinent information about the market.

Should the group move from that process, Phase III, which is the final step, would include the finalizing of the expansion fee and the formal expansion process.

Las Vegas was joined by Quebec City as the two cities that beat the July 20 application deadline.

CBSSports points out that even if the two franchises are granted to both cities, neither is expected to play in the league for, at least, another two years.