One of the oldest and most celebrated hotels in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Tropicana, was imploded earlier this week, and construction will begin on a $1.5 billion stadium that will be the home of Major League Baseball’s Athletics in 2028.
Trop Goes Out With a Bang
The venerable Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas has been around since 1957, but its final days were spent desolate, waiting for the final countdown of a carefully orchestrated implosion. In the early morning hours of October 9th, the 22-story Tropicana Club and its accompanying 22-story Paradise Club went out in grand style, accompanied by a fireworks display for all those awake enough to witness it.
“The demolition of the Tropicana represents an important milestone in the process of bringing A’s baseball to the world-renowned Las Vegas Strip and the community of Southern Nevada,” said Bally’s Corporation chairman Soo Kim in an earlier press release.
Yes, it was out with the old and in with the new. The new, of course, is a $1.5 billion stadium collaboration between Bally’s and Oakland A’s owner, John Fisher, who has moved his team from Oakland to a temporary ballpark in west Sacramento, Sutter Health Park, a 14,000-seat stadium and home of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats.
“Bally’s is honored to have been part of this historic moment, bidding farewell to the iconic Tropicana,” Kim added. “As we celebrate its legacy, we look ahead to building a world-class entertainment resort, the future home of the Athletics, and cementing Las Vegas as the ultimate sports and entertainment capital.”
Peanuts & Crackerjacks
The A’s will call their new minor league venue home for the next three seasons beginning in April 2025 before coming home to their state-of-the-art facility for the 2028 season. The city has guaranteed $350 million of funding for the project, and it will allow Las Vegas to boast franchises in three of the four major North American sports leagues, with the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL and the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders being the other two. An NBA franchise to join them is reported to be almost inevitable.
A reported nine of the site’s 36 acres at the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard will be devoted to the ballpark, while Bally’s will construct a hotel resort, casino, and entertainment complex with the remaining land.
“There’s an opportunity to offer the patrons more integration, and in that way, make the rest of the remaining acreage more valuable. Great sporting experiences are shared outside the arena, whether it’s the walk, or the concourses, or the energy outside the stadium,” Bally’s Chairman Kim said earlier this year about the project’s master plan.
“Modern arena design is what happens outside the stadium. That energy is the way to go,” Kim said. “I think the stadium is going to be an amazing amenity for the city, for tourism, and the community. It’s on us to bring a resort to life that’s as exciting as [John] Fisher’s plan for the stadium,” he said.
The stadium is expected to hold 30,000 fans, but until the team’s arrival in Sin City, they will simply be known as the A’s, or Athletics, with no city or state attached to the name.
Calculators
