The team had been in negotiations with the city of Oakland to build a stadium on the waterfront but switched the focus entirely to Las Vegas last month. It is averaging less than 9,500 fans at home this season, by far the lowest among the 30 teams. The A’s had been looking for a new home for years to replace the outdated and run-down Oakland Coliseum, where the team has played since arriving from Kansas City for the 1968 season. “The Tropicana has been a landmark of Las Vegas for generations, and this development will enhance this iconic site for generations to come.”
“We are honored to have been selected to partner with the Oakland Athletics on this monumental step in helping to bring Major League Baseball to the great city of Las Vegas, and to be a part of the once-in-a-generation opportunity of having a professional baseball team located within a short walk of the Las Vegas Strip,” Bally’s President George Papanier said in a statement. Now the Trop is overshadowed by nearby megaresorts such as the MGM Grand, New York-New York and Mandalay Bay, and soon it likely will meet the fate of so many other historic Las Vegas hotels that are no longer around. The Tropicana opened in 1957 and in its heyday drew such A-listers as Sammy Davis Jr.
