Drop the Trop: 555 drones, 2,100 pounds of explosives highlight implosion

Mick Akers, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sep 26, 2024

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Come 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 9, the pair of Tropicana hotel towers that have stood on the Strip for decades will come down in less than 30 seconds.

The two, 23-story towers, totaling 917,400 square feet will be reduced to rubble in 22 seconds, as crews from Controlled Demolition ignite a combined 2,190 pounds of explosives, Bally’s Corp. and the Oakland Athletics jointly announced Wednesday.

Before that occurs, the Tropicana will be celebrated one last time with a show in the sky, featuring 555 drones and a fireworks display, created by Fireworks by Grucci.

The structural steel-framed Paradise Tower will see 220 cut-point locations filled with 490 pounds of explosives, while the reinforced concrete-framed Club Tower is scheduled to have 1,130 boreholes filled with 1,700 pounds of explosives.

There will be 22,000 lineal feet of detonating cord used to initiate the implosion following the drone and fireworks show.

There will be no public viewing spaces set up to watch the fireworks show and implosion. Residents are urged to to check local listings to view the spectacle on television.

Clark County Commissioner, Jim Gibson, said he believes the Tropicana will be the last structure on Las Vegas Boulevard to be imploded for quite some time.

“It’s going to be an awfully exciting evening,” Gibson told the Review-Journal this month. “It’s been years since we did our last one, and it will likely be many, many years before we do another.”

The Rat Pack era property is being brought down in order to make way for the Athletics’ planned, $1.5 billion, 33,000 fan capacity ballpark. The stadium is slated to be built on 9 acres of the 35-acre site. Bally’s Corp. plans to build a new resort around the ballpark at a future date.

The A’s plan to begin construction on their Strip stadium in the second quarter of next year, with construction scheduled to wrap up in early 2028, to be ready for that year’s Major League Baseball season.

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