The house doesn't always win.
Starting April 2, Tropicana Las Vegas will close its doors to make way for a new ballpark and resort, nearly 67 years after the casino opened its doors.
The 44,000-square-foot casino and 1,400-room hotel will be demolished and replaced by a 30,000-seat ballpark, the future home of the A's, announced Bally's, owner of the Tropicana in Rhode Island since 2022.
The A's agreed to move to Las Vegas from Oakland in November. The team's move follows the 2020 relocation of the NFL's Raiders from Oakland to Las Vegas and the NBA's Golden State Warriors from Oakland to San Francisco in 2019.
The new stadium is projected to attract more than 2.5 million fans and visitors annually to the Las Vegas Strip, Bally's said in a news release.
Tropicana will close all hotel reservations and relocate customers with reservations made beyond the closing date. More information on reservations, rewards club cards and online gambling transactions can be found at troplv.com.
The Tropicana Las Vegas opened on April 4, 1957 and was billed as the “Tiffany of the Strip” in promotional advertising. The then-300-room hotel also boasted being the most expensive property in Las Vegas, with a price tag of $15 million, the Nevada State Journal reported at the time.
The casino hosted Elvis Presley in the 1964 film “Viva Las Vegas”; the 1971 James Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever”; and the 1972 film “The Godfather,” in which it was renamed Tropigala.
After humble beginnings, ties to organized crime and numerous ownership changes, the Tropicana completed a $157 million renovation to adopt a South Beach motif in 2011filled with white marble floors throughout the casino.
But all that will soon be history. The hotel-casino occupies 35 acres at the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip and, once demolished, will pave the way for the proposed $1.5 billion baseball stadium that will occupy 9 acres of land. According to Bally's, a proposed complex will be integrated into the master plan.
Company president George Papanier said in a statement that Bally's is “honored to be a key partner of the A's in bringing a Major League Baseball stadium to the great city of Las Vegas.” The land is currently leased to Tropicana by Gaming & Leisure Properties.
In November, Major League Baseball owners approved the move around the A's to Las Vegas, and Nevada offered the team $380 million in public financing to help pay for the project.
The stadium is expected to open in 2028, but the A's current lease with the Oakland Coliseum ends at the end of the 2024 season, which could leave the team, temporarily, without a home.
