The news came down hard on everyone. The Tropicana – Las Vegas, one of the older hotels in the Las Vegas strip, is going to be demolished to give way to a baseball stadium. And that means the hotel will be closing down in April, 2 months before FlightSimExpo’s (FSE) due date, which would take place at that exact venue.
FlightSimExpo’s organization has added a statement on their website, where they confirmed they were “not informed of this news in advance of its public release”. It was known, by then, that there were discussions regarding “its long-term future” and the FSE organization “engaged extensively with hotel management, Hilton, and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, all of whom confirmed to us that the hotel would remain operational through at least 2025. These confirmations were integrated in the contractual agreement we established with the hotel.”
You can read the news here.
What does this mean to FlightSimExpo?
It’s still way too soon to come up with any conclusions, of course. This pretty much just happened a few hours ago but the FSE organization is “committed to hosting FlightSimExpo 2024” and the team wants to “secure a new venue in Las Vegas for the originally planned dates”. To do so, they have already “arranged calls this week to discuss options with Tropicana and other potential venues”.
If you have already booked your trip and stay (like I did), FSE recommends “holding off on making any changes to travel plans” as the organization “will be engaging the Tropicana this week regarding the status of hotel room bookings, your room deposits, and next steps”.
The best course of action right now? I would say wait and see. It’s still early and you should be able to cancel and get a refund if you already paid for a deposit or for your room in advance. At least if things don’t go sideways, which I’d say is not predictable at this point.
FSE asks you to monitor their website and join their Discord Server to follow the conversation in real-time. I assume they will also spread any news through their social media, and we will be providing any relevant information, so keep your eyes peeled.
It is quite frustrating, but I am sure we will enjoy ourselves in Las Vegas and have a great event. Stay tuned.
