The last remnants of the Tropicana Las Vegas will disappear in 22 seconds

Bally's Corp. Chairman Soo Kim knew the aging Rat Pack-era Tropicana Las Vegas casino resort needed to be replaced – long before a major league ballpark was even considered.

“A lot of smart people looked at this and tried to come up with different, different plans to keep it the way it was,” Kim said early Wednesday morning, before 490 pounds of explosives left the Tropicana's two 22-story hotel towers in a pile from Rubble and twisted steel.

“It was clear to us that the 35 acres were fundamentally more valuable,” Kim said.

The Tropicana, which opened in 1957 at the south end of the Strip, received a fitting farewell with an eight-minute fireworks display that included aerial messages from 555 drones about the location's past, present and future, as well as logos for the Tropicana, Las Vegas and the Oakland Athletics future tenant of the stadium.

The drones formed a piston of dynamite that was used for the 10-second countdown for the implosion of the hotel towers, which lasted about 22 seconds. Outside the private event site, law enforcement cordoned off the strip and streets surrounding the site, keeping crowds to a minimum.

“That was the best implosion I've ever seen, and I've only seen one,” Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher said, laughing after the 2:30 a.m. demolition, sending dust clouds down the Strip toward Excalibur and beyond swirled east as the entrance to Harry Reid International Airport.

“Vegas puts on a great show,” Fisher said, adding that construction of a $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat baseball stadium on the site will begin “in the second quarter of next year.” The A's, who will drop their Oakland name after the official end of the current season, plan to move into the stadium for the 2028 season.

Most of the event was a tribute to the Tropicana.

Several former Folies Bergère showgirls and Rat Pack tribute impersonators attended a private party and media event to celebrate the former hotel-casino, which closed in April. A 1957 Chevy that was part of the Folies show and was on display at the resort provided a photo opportunity at the party. The site's future was represented by a handful of A's players, manager Mark Kotsay and team officials and their family members.

Initially, 9 hectares will be used for the stadium. Kim, whose company completed its acquisition of the resort in September 2022, will consider multiple options for Bally's portion of the property, noting that the property is surrounded by 13,000 hotel rooms, most of which is controlled by MGM Resorts International.

“We have to take that into account,” Kim said. “There is so much potential. We’ll make our decisions pretty quickly.”