LAS VEGAS– The Tropicana Las Vegas, a Sin City landmark for more than six decades, will close its doors in the spring to make way for a $1.5 billion Major League Baseball stadium that will be home to the relocating Oakland Athletics .
Bally’s Corp. made the announcement Monday, saying the April 2 closure — days before the 67th anniversary of Tropicana’s opening — marks the start of preparations for the demolition of the Las Vegas Strip resort.
The Tropicana was dubbed the “Tiffany of the Strip,” described as the most expensive hotel-casino built in Las Vegas when it opened in 1957 with three floors and 300 rooms at a cost of $15 million.
Now that lot is the planned site of a 30,000-seat baseball field with a retractable roof. All 30 MLB owners approved the A’s move to Las Vegas in November.
In a statement, Bally’s president George Papanier described the plans for the ballpark as a “once in a lifetime opportunity.”
“Bally’s looks forward to developing a new resort and ballpark that will be built in its place and become a new landmark, paying tribute to the iconic history and global appeal of Las Vegas and its nearly 50 million visitors annually,” said the spokesman. The company reports this in a press release.
The stadium, backed by $380 million in public financing, is expected to open in 2028, near the homes of the NFL’s Vegas Raiders, who fled Oakland in 2020, and the NHL’s Golden Knights, who won the Stanley last year Cup in their sixth season. season.
Bally’s says it will no longer accept hotel bookings after April 2 and will move any customers who book after the cut-off date.
The company’s announcement came just a month after the Tropicana and the Culinary Workers Union, which represents about 500 workers there, agreed to a new five-year contract.
Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said he hopes the severance package outlined in the latest contract will ease what he expects to be a difficult transition for Tropicana’s largely senior workforce, many of whom, he said, are in the hotel worked. casino for decades.
Under the new union contract, employees will receive severance pay of $2,000 for each year worked. For veteran workers at the Tropicana, Pappageorge said, that amounts to tens of thousands of dollars.
“Hotels are bought and sold regularly in Las Vegas,” says Pappageorge. “These new projects are welcome, but employees cannot be thrown away like an old shoe.”
Rhode Island-based Bally’s bought the Tropicana in 2021 for $308 million.