After A’s Play Last Game In Oakland, Tropicana Hotel Implosion On Deck For Early Wednesday Morning To Build MLB Ballpark On Strip
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
Baseballs and A’s ballcaps were being doled out Monday to special guests credentialed to see the old Tropicana hotel towers reduced to rubble to make way for a planned Athletics baseball stadium on nine acres of the 35-acre site on the Strip.
The skeleton of the 1957-circa Tropicana hotel will be taken down at 2:30 AM Wednesday, but surrounding roads will be closed at 11 PM Tuesday. Las Vegas Boulevard will be close from Hacienda Avenue to Harmon Avenue, while Tropicana Avenue will be closed from Koval Lane to Dean Martin Drive.
There are no official public viewing areas. It should take 22 seconds to reduce the two towers to a cloud of dust and pile of rubble.
The A’s played their last game at the Oakland Coliseum less than two weeks ago on Sept. 26 and will play three seasons in 2025, 2026 and 2027 while the $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat domed stadium is built on the Strip. The plan is for the baseball stadium to be ready for the 2028 MLB season.
The same builders who constructed the Raiders stadium — McCarthy and Mortenson — are building the A’s ballpark on the Strip. A’s president Dave Kaval had a meeting for the general contractors to meet potential vendors and sub-contractors less than a month ago.
Kaval told LVSportsBiz.com months ago that the entire 35-acre site will be a blank slate before a groundbreaking is scheduled for either, April, May or June. Figure a 31-month building timetable for the venue to open for the 2028 baseball season.
Southern Nevada only has owner John Fisher’s word that he has enough money to build the stadium, even with $380 million in public assistance to help build the venue under a 2023 state bill approved in special session.
A stadium development agreement between the A’s and the public Las Vegas Stadium Authority is being fashioned, but it’s not clear when the stadium board will vote on the document.
What about parking for the A’s stadium? Clark County government gave the Raiders a big break for allowing only about 2,500 parking spaces on their stadium site even though county planning rules required more than 15,000. Don’t expect the county to require much new parking for the A’s stadium, with the A’s likely relying on neighboring MGM Resorts International properties like MGM Grand, New York New York, Excalibur and Mandalay Bay for parking.
The Las Vegas Stadium Board meets Oct. 17 at 3 PM at the LVCVA board room at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
