Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman performed there. Gladys Knight and Wayne Newton had residencies in its theatre. Magicians Siegfried & Roy made their Las Vegas debut there. And James Bond checked into room 831 after saying, “I hear that the Hotel Tropicana is quite comfortable” in the movie “Diamonds are Forever.”
Tropicana Las Vegas closed its doors for good Tuesday after 67 years on the Strip to make way for a $1.5 billion baseball stadium, including $380 million in public funding, for the Oakland Athletics. After demolition, tentatively scheduled to start in October, the approximately nine acres will go to the A’s to construct a proposed 30,000-seat ballpark, targeting a 2028 opening at the earliest.
The A’s already announced plans to move to Las Vegas and have one year left on their lease at the Oakland Coliseum. It’s unclear where the team will play in 2025.
A meeting between the A’s and Oakland officials Tuesday didn’t bring them closer to a lease extension to stay in the Coliseum beyond the current season.
“We appreciate Oakland’s engagement and also we are far apart on the terms needed to agree on an extension,” the club said in a statement.
In the meeting, Oakland officials presented a five-year offer in which the A’s would pay $97 million to stay at the Coliseum through 2029 and could opt out of the deal after three years, though they’d have to pay the total sum regardless, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The A’s planned to counter with a two-year deal worth $17 million, according to ESPN. The team’s $67 million annual broadcast deal is a major incentive for the A’s to remain in Oakland.
A’s in Sacramento or Salt Lake City?
The A’s will reportedly meet with Sacramento officials Wednesday to discuss a temporary residency there. Sutter Health Park is the home of the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.
In January, A’s executives also toured the site of a new minor league ballpark under construction in South Jordan, Utah, that will house the Salt Lake Bees starting in 2025. The Bees currently play in Smith’s Ballpark near downtown Salt Lake City. The Triple A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels is owned by the Larry H. Miller Company, which is trying to bring a major league franchise to the state.
At the time, LHM CEO Steve Starks said the company had been in “regular contact” with the A’s about the possibility of playing in Utah.
Having the A’s in Utah would be a trial run of sorts for LHM as it pursues a major league expansion team for Salt Lake City. It could also serve as a measuring stick for Utahns’ interest in big league baseball.
Tropicana past and future
The Tropicana cost $15 million to build and opened in 1957. Nicknamed “Tiffany of the Strip” for its opulence, it was the third-oldest casino on the Strip. Bally’s Corporation bought the hotel, which sits on 35 acres, in 2022. It closed the rooms in its original wings last November. The stadium will occupy nine acres, while Bally’s will keep the remainder for a new development.
Bally’s chairman Soo Kim told The New York Times last year, “The Trop is obviously iconic, but it is, really, in a lot of ways, economically obsolete. It literally is part of the glitz and glamor of Vegas, but it hasn’t been that for decades.”
University of Las Vegas history professor Michael Green told USA Today that it’s not an unusual move from a city known for tearing down its history to make way for future projects.
“Hotels built in the 1950s were not designed for the 2020s,” Green told USA Today. The Tropicana’s closing “reflects Las Vegas changing to keep up with and get ahead of everyone else. … The times have changed.”
Should the A’s move to Las Vegas, the city would boast three major league sports franchises, including the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights and the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. LeBron James has expressed a desire to bring NBA basketball to Sin City.