Rumor, The Tropicana will close in February or March of 2006

[Grant]

Three things happened recently that have stirred up the rumor mill surrounding the fate of the Tropicana. The first was that parent company Aztar Gaming announced stellar third quarter earnings, up nearly 30 percent over last year. Most of those dollars came from the company's Atlantic City properties, which means that not only does the company have some big bucks to play with, but it's obvious that the Tropicana in Vegas is not generating the kind of results it wants.

The second was that officials with the company, while announcing their big earnings numbers, essentially refused to say what they were going to do with the Tropicana in Las Vegas, sticking to the "we're still thinking about it" mantra they've been using for the last couple of years. That seems to make people suspicious that they are up to something and just don't want to let the cat out of the bag.

The third thing that happened is the Tropicana stopped taking reservations past February 2006.

Now, that last one may seem more significant than it really is. If you go back and read the columns for the last couple of years, you'll see more than one instance when the hotel was not taking bookings past a certain date, leading to similar rumors. For instance, at various times I have predicted the hotel would not be around past 2003, 2004,and 2005 and look -- it's still there.

Having said all that, it seems as if things may be finally coming to a head and that 2006 may be the year when something finally happens to the legendary hotel.

Source: Vegas4Visitors

[doctor_al]

There are plans on file with Clark County for some kind of (re) development at the corner of Trop and LV Blvd. I've only found the text descriptions, not the actual plans, so I don't really understand what all it entails, but the point is, they have architectural plans and permits.

The trick is, do they have the capital? People who've seen what they've done with the AC Trop would say it appears they can handle a major development project, but all the analyst types I've read seem to doubt it. The stock price of Aztar (the owner), I've heard, is sort of artificially inflated by an expectation that someone will buy them out.

[Livinthedream]

OK place to stay. But does not fit with the other hotels on the other corners.Their neighbor SamRemo is getting an upgrade and changing to Hooters.Trop has a great pool and reasonable gaming.Easy to get good offers from them .Would hate to see those parts go.

According to the shuttle driver we had part will be torn down to put up a new tower.

[Livinthedream]

Just got a flyer only rates thru January usually go 4 months in advance, cheaper than last flyer appears something is up

[doctor_al]

Hard to read the Trop anymore, they've done the 'not taking advance reservations' a couple times already, then ... nothing. This one will only be for-sure when you see the hole in the ground.