Built in 1957, the storied Tropicana Las Vegas closed its doors for good this past April, just 2 days before its 67th birthday.
Plans are underway for the property, owned by Bally’s Corporation, to become a $1.5 billion Major League Baseball stadium. The new stadium, which will seat 30,000 and will have a retractable roof, will be the new home for the soon-to-be-relocating Oakland Athletics.
Design by BIG/Image by Negativ
“From its Rat Pack-era heyday and the glamorous Folies Bergère to now the future home of the Athletics and a cutting-edge entertainment complex by Bally’s Corporation, the Tropicana’s history reflects the spirit of reinvention and excitement that defines Las Vegas,” Bally’s stated in its prepared release.
But before construction can begin, demolition has to happen. And because Las Vegas is, well, Las Vegas, the demolition of the hotel and casino that was called “The Tiffany of The Strip” in its day is going to be a hell of an event.
The event
According to public records, the Clark County Building Department issued a commercial demolition implosion permit to Tropicana Land LLC on Monday, Sept. 23. The work will be done by a company called Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI), which is a company that’s licensed in wrecking buildings.
According to a spokesperson from Bally’s Corp., the big event is set for Wednesday, October 9th, at 2:30 a.m. local time.
2:30 am? That’s so early!
Indeed. 2:30am in Las Vegas (Pacific time) is 3:30am Mountain time, 4:30am Central time and 5:30am Eastern time. But it’s a respectable 10:30am GMT. 😉
Anyway, officials say they want to minimize the impact of dust and traffic disruption, So 2:30 a.m. is it.
The plans
Before the implosion, Bally’s and the Oakland A’s plan to host a multi-hour commemorative event that will feature, among other things, 555 drones and a fireworks display by Fireworks by Grucci. Because, of course, those are their plans…because, like I said, Las Vegas. 😉
Bally’s says that in the interest of safety, there are no plans for public viewing areas. Instead, there will be multiple live streaming options that you can watch on:
- ballylive.com
- The Bally app
- the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on TwitterX
- Several local news channels also report that they will show the demolition live on their respective channels
How will the implosion work?
CDI has a long history of safe demolitions in Clark County (35 buildings since 1993, including Dunes North Tower, Frontier, Hacienda, Stardust and Riviera).
For the destruction of the Tropicana, according to Bally’s, a total of 917,400 square feet will be imploded with the use of nearly 2,200 pounds of explosives. The demolition sequence will begin with the implosion of the 23-story Paradise Tower and end with the implosion of the 23-story Club Tower. It’s expected both buildings will collapse within 22 seconds after the implosion button is pressed.
“A total of 22,000 lineal feet of detonating cord will be used to initiate the implosion in both structures at the end of the fireworks and drone show, Bally’s notes.
It should be interesting to watch, to say the least.
Feature Photo: Tropicana Las Vegas // Facebook
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