What Was on the A's Stadium Site Before? The Tropicana's Vegas History

The A's Las Vegas ballpark is going up on the site of the Tropicana, the "Tiffany of the Strip," which opened on April 4, 1957 at Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. It closed on April 2, 2024 and was imploded on October 9, 2024. The stadium uses about nine acres of the 35-acre property. Bally's controls the rest.

If you have driven past the corner lately, you have seen the roof arches and the cranes. What you cannot see anymore is the resort that stood there for 67 years, one with a mob scandal, a Paris revue, a James Bond cameo and a famous tropical pool in its past. Here is what was on the site, how it came down, and what the A's are, and are not, building on it. For where the stadium itself stands right now, see our November 2026 construction update.

What Casino Was Demolished for the A's Stadium?

The Tropicana. MLB's own release on the implosion called it "the iconic Tropicana Las Vegas," and the club's ballpark sits on part of the land where its two hotel towers and casino stood. The Tropicana was the only resort on the site.

That is worth saying plainly because the corner can be confusing. Tropicana Avenue is also the name of the cross street, so the Tropicana name is still on the street signs. The building is gone.

When Did the Tropicana Open?

On April 4, 1957, according to UNLV historian Michael Green, writing for Nevada Public Radio. Lieutenant Governor Rex Bell turned the key. Here is what the resort looked like on day one, per Green and the Associated Press:

• Cost: $15 million.
• Rooms: about 300, in two three-story wings.
• Out front: a 60-foot, tulip-shaped fountain.
• Opening headliner: singer Eddie Fisher.

The man behind it was Ben Jaffe, a co-owner of the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach. MLB's release says his "South Beach-inspired architecture and tropical theme set a new standard for opulence," which is how the Tropicana earned the nickname "The Tiffany of the Strip." The same release says it had the largest casino in Las Vegas when it opened.

Was the Tropicana Really a Mob Casino?

For parts of its history, yes, and that is not just legend. Green's history lays out two separate chapters.

The 1957 chapter. Jaffe ran short of money and leased the casino to Phil "Dandy Phil" Kastel, who had worked for New York mob figure Frank Costello. Some of Jaffe's investors did not pass muster with the newly created Gaming Control Board, Kastel sold his interest, and J. Kell Houssels Sr. became the licensed casino operator. Then, on May 2, 1957, less than a month after the Tropicana opened, Costello was shot in New York. Police found a slip of paper in his pocket with a number on it: the amount of money the Tropicana had made in its first weeks. The AP describes it as a note with the casino's earnings and "money to be skimmed." A few months after the opening, Houssels took over and pushed the mob ownership and operators out, according to Green.

The 1970s chapter. Under later owners, people tied to the Kansas City mob gained influence over the casino. Green writes that in the late 1970s the Kansas City organization was skimming money through Folies Bergere producer Joe Agosto and casino executive Carl Thomas, and the FBI caught it on wiretaps in an investigation called Operation Strawman. The AP reports that federal authorities charged more than a dozen mob operatives with conspiring to skim nearly $2 million in gambling revenue from Las Vegas casinos, including the Tropicana, and that the Tropicana charges produced five convictions.

The cleanup came through new ownership. In late 1979, Ramada Inns bought the Tropicana, which Green calls the first true corporate ownership in the resort's history.

What Was the Tropicana Famous For?

going up on the site of the Tropicana, the "Tiffany of the Strip," which opened on April 4, 1957 at Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.

Mostly for the shows. A few highlights from its 67 years:

• The Folies Bergere. The Paris production arrived in 1959, according to Green's NPR interview. It ran for decades and closed in 2009, just before its 50th anniversary. Siegfried and Roy made their Las Vegas debut in it, Green told NPR.
• The Blue Room. A jazz room that grew from 150 seats to more than 600 and became the top jazz spot in town. Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Mel Tormé, Al Hirt and Rosemary Clooney all played there.
• Diamonds Are Forever. In the 1971 James Bond film, Bond stays in a suite at the Tropicana, as the AP noted when the resort closed.
• The "island of Las Vegas" era. In the mid-1980s, Ramada added a new hotel tower and a five-acre pool designed to look tropical, and marketed the resort as "the island of Las Vegas."

The resort changed hands several times after that. Ramada put its casinos under Aztar, then Aztar was taken over by Columbia Sussex, and the property was sold, remodeled and sold again. By the time the ballpark entered the picture, Gaming and Leisure Properties (GLPI) owned the land, and Bally's had bought the Tropicana building and operations in September 2022 in a $148 million transaction, according to the May 2023 announcement from Bally's, GLPI and the A's.

How Did the Tropicana Become the A's Ballpark Site?

Through that May 15, 2023 agreement. Bally's, GLPI and the club announced a deal to put a ballpark on approximately nine acres of the 35-acre site. Under the deal, GLPI kept the land and leased it to Bally's on a 50-year ground lease, and GLPI agreed to fund up to $175 million toward certain shared improvements in exchange for a rent increase. The deal still depended on public financing legislation and MLB approval of the relocation at the time.

Bally's said then that it planned to keep running the Tropicana while it evaluated "all available options for a broader redevelopment of the remainder of the site." That plan changed once the stadium moved forward. The resort was closed and cleared within about a year and a half.

When Did the Tropicana Close?

On Tuesday, April 2, 2024. The AP reported that the last guests checked out before the casino closed at lunchtime, after 67 years of welcoming guests. Green notes the date fell two days before the anniversary of its 1957 opening.

The AP talked to longtime employees on the way out, including a linen room attendant who started in 1978 and a bartender who called the place a second home for 38 years. When the doors closed, demolition was already slated for that fall to make room for the ballpark.

When Was the Tropicana Imploded?

At 2:30 a.m. PT on Wednesday, October 9, 2024. According to MLB.com's release on the implosion, the night went like this:

1. A ceremony. Speakers included Bally's chairman Soo Kim, A's owner John Fisher, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill and Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson.
2. A light show. A 555-drone and fireworks display by Fireworks by Grucci.
3. The implosion. It took 22 seconds to bring down the Tropicana's two towers, which totaled 917,400 square feet.

The release adds some engineering detail. The steel-framed Paradise Tower had 220 cut points loaded with 490 pounds of explosives. The concrete-framed Club Tower had 1,130 boreholes filled with 1,700 pounds of explosives. Controlled Demolition, Inc. and GGG Demolition handled the blast. The Las Vegas Review-Journal summed it up: in 22 seconds the Rat Pack-era resort's two hotel towers were reduced to rubble, in part to make way for the A's ballpark.

Fisher said in the MLB release that the demolition was "an important milestone in the process of bringing A's baseball to the world-renowned Las Vegas Strip." Construction followed the next year, with a groundbreaking on June 23, 2025, which the AP reported drew Commissioner Rob Manfred.

Is the Stadium Taking the Whole Tropicana Property?

No. The ballpark uses about nine of the roughly 35 acres. MLB.com's story on the ballpark renderings, published in March 2024, put it directly: "The ballpark will occupy nine acres of the 35-acre Tropicana site."

That same story describes the stadium the A's are building on their slice:

• About 33,000 capacity.
• Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) as design lead, with HNTB as sports and hospitality designer and architect of record.
• A roof of five overlapping layers inspired by baseball pennants.
• An 18,000-square-foot video board, which MLB said would be the largest screen in the majors.
• Set to open for the 2028 season.

We break all of that down, with seats, cost and design, in our guide to what fans should know about the new ballpark.

What Is Going on the Rest of the Tropicana Site?

A Bally's resort, on paper. The 2023 renderings story said "Bally's and GLPI are working on a master plan for a related resort development," with towers, locations and phases still to be decided. In September 2025, Bally's laid out the plan for Bally's Las Vegas. According to LVSportsBiz, it includes:

• Two hotel towers totaling 3,000 rooms.
• An entertainment venue seating 2,500.
• More than 500,000 square feet of retail, dining and entertainment.
• A casino and a pedestrian bridge to the ballpark.
• Marnell Architecture as architect of record.

Bally's said at the time that development would start in the first half of 2026. In its first-quarter 2026 earnings release, filed May 18, 2026, the company called it a "multi-phased project" on the former Tropicana site, "sharing a 35-acre campus" with the A's.

Will the Bally's Resort Open With the Ballpark?

Do not count on it. In June 2026, KSNV reported that Bally's told the Nevada Gaming Commission it never planned to open the casino hotel alongside the stadium in spring 2028. A Bally's attorney said the April 2028 deadline "is for the stadium to open and for the baseball season to proceed." At that hearing:

• Land-use applications were still pending with Clark County.
• Bally's was waiting on FAA approval of height limits for the two hotel towers.
• The company said it would like a retail, dining and entertainment plaza open when the A's arrive, but would firm up the timeline after entitlement approvals.

So the honest answer for fans planning a 2028 trip is that the ballpark has a date and the resort next to it does not, at least not publicly. We will update this page when Bally's announces one.

Why Does the Tropicana's History Matter to A's Fans?

Because the new ballpark inherits a famous address. Green pointed out that when the Tropicana opened in 1957, pro athletes had to stay away from Las Vegas. The same corner is now being built for a major league team. That is a long way from a casino whose first-month earnings turned up in a mobster's pocket.

It is also why the corner still feels like the Tropicana, starting with the street name. If you want to see what the site looks like now, our Las Vegas ballpark photo guide has our own shots from the Strip.

The Bottom Line

The A's stadium site was the Tropicana, a 1957 Strip resort with a mob past, the Folies Bergere and a Bond film on its resume. It closed on April 2, 2024 and came down in 22 seconds on October 9, 2024. The ballpark takes about nine of the 35 acres, set to open for the 2028 season. Bally's controls the rest for a resort that, as of mid-2026, still had no public opening date.

Sources

• MLB.com, Tropicana Las Vegas Says Final Farewell with Historic Implosion, Making Way for A's Ballpark (October 2024)
• MLB.com, A's unveil renderings for ballpark in Las Vegas (March 5, 2024)
• Nevada Public Radio (KNPR), Michael Green, Saying goodbye with a look back at the Tropicana in Las Vegas (March 8, 2024)
• NPR, Tropicana, the Las Vegas casino once associated with the mob, closes its doors (March 31, 2024)
• Associated Press via KUTV, The Tropicana Las Vegas, mob-era casino and Sin City landmark, closes after 67 years (April 2, 2024)
• Las Vegas Review-Journal, Tropicana implosion paves the way for new era in Las Vegas (October 9, 2024)
• Bally's, GLPI and the Athletics via PR Newswire, ballpark agreement announcement (May 15, 2023)
• Associated Press via News4JAX, Athletics celebrate groundbreaking of stadium project in Las Vegas (June 23, 2025)
• LVSportsBiz, Bally's Corporation releases development plan for former Tropicana site (September 28, 2025)
• Bally's Corporation, first-quarter 2026 earnings release (SEC Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1) (May 18, 2026)
• KSNV News 3 Las Vegas, Bally's says it never planned to open Las Vegas Strip resort at same time as ballpark (June 26, 2026)

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