Las Vegas’ shuttered Tropicana casino-resort is expected to get imploded in early October to pave the way for the planned Oakland Athletics MLB ballpark to be built on a portion of the site, according to Clark County records obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
An explosive use permit application filed on July 11 by Tropicana owner Bally’s Corp. calls the event ‘The implosion of the Tropicana and Paradise towers’, with a planned move-in date of September 30th and a move-out date of October 8th. That suggests the implosion could occur between those nine days, Review-Journal reports.
However, with Bally’s Corp. still needing to submit its implosion plan, the time frame could change, pending permitting and planning approvals by the county. Bally’s Corp. applied for the permit on July 11, the same day as an implosion permit application was filed by the company.
The former Rat Pack-era resort closed in April, and crews have been gutting the two hotel towers on the Tropicana site, preparing the structure for implosion. Once the implosion takes place and the site is cleared, the A’s plan to begin construction in April next year on their $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat ballpark. The team plans to have the stadium completed about three years after work commences, with the ballpark ready for the 2028 MLB season.
Separately, Bally’s Corp. plans to build a future resort on the remaining area surrounding the stadium. The A’s, Bally’s Corp., and landowner Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. recently agreed that the planned stadium will be built on 9 acres, just northeast of the center, of the 35-acre site.
Updated renderings released earlier this year showed the ballpark in that general vicinity, but having the location nailed down is a positive development, according to Las Vegas Stadium Authority Chairman Steve Hill.
The fixed-roof, climate-controlled ballpark is scheduled to feature a massive curtain glass wall providing a view of the Strip, looking toward the MGM Grand and the New York-New York.
“When you build a baseball stadium, you build it with where the sun’s going to shine across any 24-hour period in mind,” Hill said following last week’s stadium authority board meeting, as per Review-Journal.
“You know it’s going to face in that direction, we just wanted to make sure that it was far enough west that we still had that kind of iconic view. You’re going to get a great view out of the stadium, out of that great big window there. There’s going to be no better setting for a stadium anywhere.”
