It has been a year of loss for the Las Vegas Strip, or at least a year full of both closures and long goodbyes on the famous 4.2-mile stretch of road.
The Strip lost the iconic Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat, a last remembrance of the famed magicians and their longstanding run as headliners at Mirage. That hotel has also begun its own protracted farewell as it will, at some point over the next two years, be rebranded as Hard Rock Las Vegas.
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In addition, Hard Rock International (HRI), which purchased Mirage from MGM Resorts International (MGM) -) has also shared plans to close the Mirage Volcano. One of the most beloved free shows on the Las Vegas Strip, the Volcano will be torn down (likely soon) to make way for HRI's signature Guitar Hotel.
In 2023 the Las Vegas Strip also saw countless shows close including "Legends In Concert," the longest-running show on the Strip as well as short-run shows based on Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell," and a musical from Lin Manuel Miranda.
Those closures, however, are somewhat minor compared to what's coming this year when two of the oldest casinos on the Strip — Casino Royale and the Tropicana — will be closed and likely imploded. A key piece of Las Vegas history, however, has already been lost as it closed quietly in November.
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Las Vegas Strip loses its oldest hotel rooms
Everyone who follows Las Vegas Strip news knows that the second-oldest hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, Tropicana, will be imploded in 2024 to make way for a stadium for the Oakland Athletics.
The team reached a deal with Bally's Corp. (BALY) -), which operates the resort casino, and Vici Properties which owns the underlying land to build a new stadium that will seat between 30-33,000 fans.
“One of the big goals is going to be flexibility for a unique seating capacity, anywhere between 30,000 to 33,000 seats,” A's Design Director Brad Schrock told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "That really puts us in a sweet spot for a lot of other events aside from just baseball. So we want to make sure the way that the seating bowl is designed has the flexibility to accommodate multiple events and that it’s a really fun place for fans to come and watch a game.”
The exact plans for the stadium have not been revealed, likely so Bally's can keep the Tropicana booked through the early part of the year which includes the Super Bowl and March Madness. That has not stopped the company from closing a piece of the hotel, the "bungalow rooms," which opened with the casino in 1957, Casino.org's Corey Levitan reported.
Las Vegas Strip has lost its oldest hotel rooms
Even though Tropicana's original casino was destroyed in the 1970s, the so-called "bungalow rooms" survived.
"What many tourists don’t realize is that the implosion will take with it the oldest surviving hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip. And what almost no one realizes is that those rooms are no longer available to the public. They were permanently, and quietly, closed in mid-November," Levitan reported.
Caesars Entertainment's (CZR) -) Flamingo is actually the oldest casino on the Las Vegas Strip but none of its original rooms still exists. That makes Tropicana's oldest rooms, which were closed without any fanfare, the oldest one on the Strip.
The A's will not play on the Las Vegas Strip until 2028. The team will spend the 2024 season in Oakland and it has not shared plans for the years until the stadium opens.
In theory, the team could move to the Las Vegas Ballpark, the off-strip home of its AA affiliate the Las Vegas Aviators but no plan has been agreed to.
Athletics owner John Fisher shared some remorse over leaving its long-time home.
"We made sincere efforts to keep our team in Oakland, but unfortunately, it did not work out. I am grateful to the fans who have supported our team throughout the years and the home Oakland provided," he shared.
