Bally’s Corp. Chairman Soo Kim knew the aging Rat Pack-era casino resort Tropicana Las Vegas needed to be replaced — long before a Major League Baseball stadium was even considered a possibility.

“A lot of smart people looked at it and tried to come up with different, different plans to keep it the way it was,” Kim said early Wednesday morning before 490 pounds of explosives left the Tropicana’s two 22-story hotel towers in stacks. of rubble and twisted steel.

“It was clear to us that the 35 hectares were more valuable as a blank slate,” Kim said.

The Tropicana, which opened in 1957 on the south side of the Strip, was given a fitting send-off, with an eight-minute fireworks display featuring aerial reports from 555 drones from the past, present and future for the venue, including logos for the Tropicana, Las Vegas and the Oakland Athletics, the future tenant of the stadium.

The drones formed a dynamite plunger used for the 10-second countdown for the implosion of the hotel towers, which lasted about 22 seconds. Outside the private event site, police closed the Strip and the streets surrounding the site, keeping crowds to a minimum.

“That was the best implosion I’ve ever seen, and I’ve only seen one,” said Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher, laughing after the 2:30 a.m. demolition, which sent clouds of dust across the Strip toward Excalibur and all far east as the entrance to Harry Reid International Airport.

“Vegas is putting on a great show,” said Fisher, who added that construction on a $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat baseball stadium would begin “in the second quarter of next year.” The A’s, who will drop the Oakland name once the current season officially ends, plan to move into the stadium for the 2028 season.

Most of the event was a tribute to the Tropicana.

Several former Folies Bergère showgirls and Rat Pack tribute impersonators took part in a private party and media event to celebrate the bygone hotel-casino, which closed in April. A 1957 Chevy, which was part of the Folies show and on display at the resort, provided photo opportunities at the party. The future of the site was represented by a handful of A-players, manager Mark Kotsay and team officials and their family members.

Initially, 9 hectares will be used for the stadium. Kim, whose company completed its acquisition of the resort in September 2022, will consider various options for Bally’s portion of the site, noting that 13,000 hotel rooms, most controlled by MGM Resorts International, surround the property.

“We have to take that into account,” Kim said. “There is so much potential. We will make our decisions quite quickly.”