Bally’s Corp. Chairman Soo Kim knew the aging Rat Pack-era Tropicana Las Vegas casino resort had to be replaced — long before a Major League Baseball stadium was even considered a possibility.
“A lot of smart people have looked at it and tried to come up with different, varying plans to keep it the way it was,” Kim said early Wednesday morning before 490 pounds of explosives left the Tropicana’s twin 22-story hotel towers as piles of rubble and twisted steel.
“It was clear to us that the 35 acres were more valuable as a clean slate,” Kim said.
The Tropicana, which opened on the south end of the Strip in 1957, was given a fitting send-off, with an eight-minute fireworks display that included aerial messages presented by 555 drones of the past, present and future for the site, including logos for the Tropicana, Las Vegas and the Oakland Athletics, the stadium’s future tenant.
The drones formed a dynamite plunger that was used for the 10-second countdown for the implosion of the hotel towers, which lasted roughly 22 seconds. Outside of the compound for the private event, law enforcement closed off the Strip and streets surrounding the site, which kept crowds at a minimum.
“That was the best implosion I’ve ever seen, and I’ve only seen one,” Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher said with a laugh following the 2:30 a.m. demolition that sent clouds of dust across the Strip toward Excalibur and as far east as the entrance to Harry Reid International Airport.
“Vegas puts on a great show,” said Fisher, who added that construction of a $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat baseball stadium on the site would begin “in the second quarter of next year.” The A’s, which will drop the name Oakland once the current season officially ends, plan to move into the stadium for the 2028 season.
Most of the event paid homage to the Tropicana.
Several former Folies Bergère showgirls and Rat Pack tribute impersonators took part in a private party and media event to celebrate the bygone hotel-casino, which closed in April. A 1957 Chevy, which was part of the Folies show and was displayed at the resort, provided photo opportunities at the party. The site’s future was represented by a handful of A’s players, manager Mark Kotsay and team officials and their family members.
Initially, 9 acres will be used for the stadium. Kim, whose company closed on its resort’s acquisition in September 2022, will consider several options for Bally’s part of the site, noting that 13,000 hotel rooms, mostly controlled by MGM Resorts International, surround the property.
“We have to take that into consideration,” Kim said. “There’s so much potential. We’re going to make our decisions pretty quickly.”
