The Tropicana Las Vegas shut its doors this week after an amazing 67-year run that helped define the very image of Las Vegas cool. During its storied run, the Tropicana Las Vegas played host to Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, James Bond, and more members of organized crime than a country club prison. But in a sign of the change that also defines Las Vegas, the property is being cleared to make room for a gleaming new baseball stadium to host the incoming Las Vegas A’s baseball team.
Sitting on 9-acres of prime Las Vegas Strip real Estate, the Tropicana was a prime target for redevelopment. Officials at the Bally’s Corporation say they’ll be demolishing the buildings and clearing the site completely by April 2025. That’s when construction on a new $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat baseball park will begin. Because Vegas is Vegas, the stadium will be attached to a casino. The new ballpark is set to open in April of 2028.
The big question on the minds of locals is whether or not Bally’s will stage a public demolition of the historic building. In a statement reported on by KTNV TV in Las Vegas, Marcus Glover, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Bally’s Corporation said that decision is still in the works. That April 2028 deadline, according to Glover, is written in stone. “The site has to be ready by then. That’s the initial timeline we’re working on. There’s an agreement on a master redevelopment plan; we want to bring something here that will make the city proud.”
The Vegas A’s will be joining the Vegas Raiders and Vegas Golden Knights as representatives of professional sports in a town where sports leagues refused to go for decades, thanks to the very mobsters who ran places like the Tropicana Las Vegas.