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LAS VEGAS \u2014 The Tropicana Las Vegas, a\u00a0Sin City landmark<\/a>\u00a0for more than six decades, is shutting its doors in the spring to make room for a $1.5 billion\u00a0Major League Baseball stadium<\/a>\u00a0that will be home to the relocating Oakland Athletics.<\/p>\n Bally\u2019s Corp. made the announcement Monday, saying the closure on April 2 \u2014 days before the 67th anniversary of the Tropicana\u2019s opening \u2014 marks the beginning of preparations for demolition of the resort on the Las Vegas Strip.<\/p>\n The Tropicana was dubbed the \u201cTiffany of the Strip,\u201d described as the most expensive hotel-casino built in Las Vegas when it opened with three stories and 300 rooms in 1957 at a cost of $15 million.<\/p>\n Now, that parcel is the planned site of a 30,000-seat ballpark with a retractable roof. All 30 MLB owners in November\u00a0gave their approval<\/a>\u00a0for the A\u2019s to move to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n In a statement, Bally\u2019s President George Papanier described the ballpark plans as a \u201conce-in-a-lifetime opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBally\u2019s looks forward to the development of a new resort and ballpark that will be built in its place and will become a new landmark, paying homage to the iconic history and global appeal of Las Vegas and its nearly 50 million visitors a year,\u201d the company said in a news release.<\/p>\n The ballpark, backed by $380 million in\u00a0public funding<\/a>, is expected to open in 2028, near the homes of the NFL\u2019s Vegas Raiders, who fled Oakland in 2020, and the NHL\u2019s Golden Knights, who won the Stanley Cup last year in just their sixth season.<\/p>\n Bally\u2019s says it will no longer accept hotel bookings after April 2 and will relocate any customers who reserve past the closing date.<\/p>\n