The famed Tropicana Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip, in Nevada, will be imploded within the next three months to make room for a Major League Baseball park.
End of an Era
The Tropicana, or the Trop as it is known to locals, opened its doors to much fanfare in 1957 and was the home to many celebrities throughout the decades. It was once dubbed the “Tiffany of the Strip,” as it was considered the poshest resort in Sin City and was a magnet for celebrities and wise guys back in its heyday.
But the 80s ushered in an era of megaresorts and the Tropicana, although nostalgic, had lost much of its luster. Bally’s bought the property in 2021 for $308 million but its demise is scheduled for sometime between September 30th and October 20th, which will allow a $1.5 billion MLB stadium to open in 2028.
“Following demolition, site prep, and approval of formal plans, construction of the Las Vegas A’s Stadium will likely begin sometime thereafter. We continue to assess our available options for the very valuable development lands next to the stadium,” Bally CEO Robesoon Reeves told the Las Vegas Review-Journal earlier this year.
The last guests at the iconic hotel were slated to leave on April 2nd in preparation for imploding the 22-story Tropicana Club and its accompanying 22-story Paradise Club, with the former being made from concrete while the latter was built with steel.
Bally’s has filed the necessary commercial demolition implosion permits with Clark County administrators, and if approved, a Maryland-based company, Controlled Demolition Inc., will oversee knocking down the historic Las Vegas property. Controlled Demolition has been hired to implode and deconstruct 13 other properties in Las Vegas alone.
Batter Up
The project is a collaboration between Bally’s, the Oakland A’s, and $350 million of public funding that will move the Athletics from the Bay Area to Las Vegas upon completion of the stadium. The blueprint calls for nine of the 35 acres to be used as the floor plan for the ballpark while other complementary amenities will complete the new MLB location.
“Bally’s looks forward to the development of a new resort and ballpark that … 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 Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the design lead, and HNTB, the architect of record, have created the vision for the latest state-of-the-art sports venue which includes an 18,000-square-foot jumbotron, the largest in any MLB stadium. The stadium will hold 33,000 fans and all seats will have unobstructed sightlines while the outfield will feature the world’s largest cable-net glass window.
“Our design for the new Vegas home for the A’s is conceived in response to the unique culture and climate of the city,’” said Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director of BIG. “Five pennant arches enclose the ballpark – shading from the Nevada sun while opening to the soft daylight from the north. A giant window frames a majestic view of the life of the Strip and the iconic New York New York hotel skyline. All direct sunlight is blocked, while all the soft daylight is allowed to wash the field in natural light.
“The resultant architecture is like a spherical armadillo – shaped by the local climate – while opening and inviting the life of the Strip to enter and explore. In the city of spectacle, the A’s ‘armadillo’ is designed for passive shading and natural light – the architectural response to the Nevada climate generating a new kind of vernacular icon in Vegas.”
