TROPICANA LAS VEGAS WILL BE DEMOLISHED TO MAKE WAY FOR $1.5 BILLION MLB STADIUM
Longtime landmark set to close April 2, days before 67th anniversary
The Tropicana Las Vegas, a Sin City landmark for more than six decades, is shutting its doors in the spring to make room for a $1.5 billion Major League Baseball stadium that will be home to the relocating Oakland Athletics.
Bally’s Corp. made the announcement Monday, saying the closure on April 2 — days before the 67th anniversary of the Tropicana’s opening — marks the beginning of preparations for demolition of the resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
The Tropicana was dubbed the “Tiffany of the Strip,” described as the most expensive hotel-casino built in Las Vegas when it opened with three stories and 300 rooms in 1957 at a cost of $15 million.
Now, that parcel is the planned site of a 30,000-seat ballpark with a retractable roof. All 30 MLB owners in November gave their approval for the A’s to move to Las Vegas.
In a statement, Bally’s President George Papanier described the ballpark plans as a “once-ina-lifetime opportunity.”
“Bally’s looks forward to the development of a new resort and ballpark that will be built in its place and will become a new landmark, paying homage to the iconic history and global appeal of Las Vegas and its nearly 50 million visitors a year,” the company said in a news release.
The ballpark, backed by $380 million in public funding, is expected to open in 2028, near the homes of the NFL’s Vegas Raiders, who fled Oakland in 2020, and the NHL’s Golden
Knights, who won the Stanley Cup last year in just their sixth season.
Bally’s says it will no longer accept hotel bookings after April 2 and will relocate any customers who reserve past the closing date.
The company’s announcement came just a month after the Tropicana and the Culinary Workers Union, which represents about 500 workers there, reached an agreement for a new five-year contract.