Tropicana implosion paves the way for new era in Las Vegas

It took all of 22 seconds to reduce the Rat Pack-era Tropicana’s two hotel towers to rubble early Wednesday morning, pushing aside 67 years of history to make way for the Athletics’ planned Las Vegas ballpark.

A seven-minute firework and drone show led up to the implosion, paying homage to what was once known for its opulence as “The Tiffany of the Strip” after it rose from the desert in 1957.

“It is honoring what the Tropicana has meant to Las Vegas,” Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Steve Hill said Tuesday before the controlled collapse. “It’s been a big part of our identity, our brand, and certainly early in its history it was an iconic location. Now we’re going to turn it into a new iconic location, which is very fitting for Las Vegas. It’s very exciting for our city to bring Major League Baseball here.”

Executives from Tropicana owner Bally’s Corp., the A’s, the LVCVA and Clark County were on hand for the demolition, which clears the way for the construction of the team’s $1.5 billion, 33,000-fan-capacity domed ballpark. The stadium will be built on 9 acres of the 35-acre site. Bally’s Corp. plans to build a new resort on the remaining acreage.

Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim said that since he has been involved with the stadium and resort project, it has always made sense.

“In this case, it’s nice to see a plan coming together,” Kim told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We’re very excited to do our part for the county and the state. We’re contributing this very valuable land, or a piece of it, to welcome the more than billion-and-a-half stadium. I think it’s going to be a game changer.”

In order to create a safety zone surrounding the Trop, roads around the shuttered resort were shut down starting at 11 p.m. Roads within the general boundaries of between Park Avenue to the north and Mandalay Bay Road to the south, and Koval Lane to the east and Frank Sinatra Drive to the west, are closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic, according to Clark County. Reno Avenue and from Frank Sinatra to Koval were also closed.

All closures were to be in place by 12:30 a.m.,Wednesday, and are scheduled to be in place until 6 a.m.

A’s are finalizing agreements

Plans are still on track for Bally’s to clear the site in time for the A’s to begin construction on the ballpark in the second quarter of 2025. The A’s are completing multiple agreements with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, finalizing the design of the ballpark and working with their contractor, Mortenson-McCarthy, on planning when to bid out work contracts for various portions of the project.

“We feel very good about where we’re at, and I think things are all moving forward according to plan,” A’s owner John Fisher told the Review-Journal after the towers had crumbled one after the other.

The ballpark will be financed through a mix of $850 million in equity from Fisher’s family, $350 million in public money made available by Senate Bill 1 and $300 million in debt taken on by the A’s. On Tuesday, Hill said he had reviewed the Fisher family’s financials and had no doubt about the family’s ability to take care of its portion of the stadium financing.

”We’ll have our financing plan out for everybody to see soon,” Fisher said. “But as you heard form Steve Hill yesterday, there’s a lot of confidence.”

Plans for the resort

Kim said Bally’s Corp. is in the early process of submitting its initial master plan for the rest of the site, including its planned resort with up to 3,000 rooms. He said the resort will include all the event and convention spaces, as well as food and beverage options, that people have come to expect in Las Vegas.

“In Vegas now, gaming is only 30 percent of the revenue, so you need to have everything else working,” Kim said. “We’re not a huge company, so we’re going to have to go slowly. So at this point we’re trying to break down those plans into bite-size phases.”

With professional sports exploding in Las Vegas, leading to a new era for Sin City, adding Major League Baseball and its stars will build off that momentum.

“Shohei Ohtani had his humongous day a few weeks ago (for the Los Angeles Dodgers). … I sent my family a text saying, ‘This guy is going to be playing baseball in Las Vegas in four years,’” Hill said. “Which is the same level as Frank Sinatra performing in Las Vegas. It’s just a fantastic location for a stadium and brings a whole new level of celebrity to our city.”

No simple feat

The aerial show leading up to the implosion was no simple feat. Fireworks By Grucci planned the show over about five months and had a crew of nearly 100 people staged in and around the Tropicana to ensure it went off smoothly, according to Phil Grucci, the company’s CEO and creative director.

The final countdown consisted of drones lighting up the sky in the shape of a TNT plunger box. When the “handle” went down, pyrodrones lined up like fuses appeared to trigger the buckling structures as they thunderously swooned into a billowing dust cloud.

“I get chills just talking about it,” Grucci said.

For Fisher, it was his first implosion, and its significance in relation to the A’s made it all the more special, especially with the drones forming multiple A’s logos over the Strip skyline.

“It was spectacular. It made me so happy and so proud and excited for the future,” Fisher said. “Seeing those buildings come down so quickly was astounding.”

Hill said Wednesday marked the latest evolution in the city’s history of imploding old, aging properties to make way for the next big thing.

“What this city has done with the land made available from these implosions has continued to raise our game and our brand,” Hill said.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.