The Las Vegas Strip could be one step closer to a Major League Baseball stadium for the Oakland Athletics franchise.
When asked on Monday if the Tropicana Las Vegas Casino Resort would be demolished, Jeremy Aguero, who works with the Athletics organization on behalf of Applied Analysis says, “Yes, redeveloped.”
Bally’s Corporation recently announced that it had a binding agreement with the Athletics organization to build the new ballpark on the current site of the Tropicana Las Vegas Hotel Casino.
Previously the Athletics had announced a different binding agreement with Red Rock Resorts for a nearly 100-acre site near Tropicana Boulevard and I-15 near the former Wild Wild West Gambling Hall & Hotel. That location would have reportedly required an ask of $500 million in public funds. The new agreement would drop that amount of required public funding to $395 million, reports indicate.
Aguero said there’s nothing wrong with the Wild Wild West site.
“It is a tremendous asset and one of the best-undeveloped properties in southern Nevada,” said Aguero.
Regarding plans for a ‘baseball village’ in the works for the former site, Aguero says the feature is no longer in the cards.
“There will not be a baseball village similar to what would have been developed on the Wild Wild West site,” said Aguero. “The MLB stadium will leverage, and its fans will clearly benefit from the restaurants, entertainment, and hospitality options in and around the resort corridor.”
The deal comes days after the Athletics came to an agreement with the Culinary Union that would guarantee workers the right to organize and negotiate union contracts.
According to the release, Bally’s Corporation announced it would assign approximately nine acres of the 35-acre site on Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue to the Athletics organization or “related stadium authority.”
The new ballpark would accommodate approximately 30,000 fans, said the news release, and the agreement would be subject to approval for public financing. Which the Las Vegas public does not want to participate in.
“We have enjoyed getting to know the Oakland Athletics’ leadership through our dialogue over the past couple of years,” said Peter Carlino, chairman and CEO of Gaming & Leisure Properties, Inc., in the news release. “We are pleased to help facilitate their exciting vision for a new ballpark through our contribution of nine acres of the Tropicana site and look forward to the prominent place that the overall project will occupy in the Las Vegas skyline.”
Bally’s acquired the building and operations of the Tropicana Las Vegas from GLPI in September 2022 as part of a $148 million transaction. Bally’s says it intends to continue the operations of the Tropicana Las Vegas for the foreseeable future while evaluating all available options for a broader redevelopment of the remainder of the site adjacent to the new ballpark.