Rio could be demolished to make room for Major League Baseball ballpark The Las Vegas rumor mill has been churning out some particularly curious stories lately and we are all in to cover the juiciest ones properly. Focus this week has been on the off-Strip Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, best known as the home. Hardly sketchy, this person is in the know and there is no way in God's green earth someone is going to tear down the Rio to build a ball park. Quote: Rio doesn’t need major repairs but a total remodel or demolishing and rebuild. Jan 18, 2019  The property could continue to exist with a little freshening up. Or, it could be torn down and the land on the site could be used for an attraction or stadium. Additionally, the sale price might have come down since last year. Previously, Caesars Entertainment was looking for.

Rumors surrounding a potential sale of Caesars’ Rio casino-hotel located less than a mile from the Las Vegas Strip have existed for years, but a fresh one has surfaced this week.

According to the Las Vegas-based blog VitalVegas, there’s a “new rumor” that the casino that has hosted the annual World Series of Poker for more than a decade could be sold and then demolished to make way for an MLB team in Sin City.

Las Vegas already has an NHL team, and the Oakland Raiders are set to move to the gambling hub upon completion of a nearly $2 billion stadium. Thanks to the proliferation of sports betting across the country in the wake of the Supreme Court’s mid-May gutting of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, the major sports leagues have greatly warmed to legalized gambling. Major League Baseball could be interested in a franchise in the Silver State.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said on the The Dan Patrick Show early this year that “Vegas is a viable expansion alternative.” Manfred is eyeing 32 franchises, up from 30.

“There’s been a spike in investor interest in parcels around Rio,” VitalVegas claimed on its Twitter account. “The speculation part: If an MLB ballpark plan is in the works, it’s an ‘Aha’ moment for why Stations has invested so much in the [nearby] Palms [casino] when it can’t possibly recoup the investment—unless they know something we don’t.”

In late August, the blog doubled down on a claim that the WSOPwill move to the Caesars Forum convention center sometime after the $375 million complex opens in 2020. The WSOP, which saw record turnout in 2018, publicly denied that claim.

The WSOP was born at Binion’s in Downtown Las Vegas and moved to the Rio in 2005 after Harrah’s Entertainment (now Caesars) acquired the brand.

Rumors of the WSOP moving to a different Caesars casino have popped up here and there for years with no sale of the Rio ever coming to fruition. PokerStars, the world’s largest poker site, claimed in 2013 that Caesars offered it the Rio and the WSOP itself. Just three years earlier, rumors of a potential Rio sale pegged the casino’s value at $500 million.

World Series of Poker to World Series?

The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, is involved in another rumor about a possible sale. However, the particularly juicy tidbit to this rumor is that the off-Strip property may be torn down and replaced with a new Major League Baseball stadium.

The rumor comes courtesy of Vegas blog Vital Vegas. The blogger has been right often enough to warrant more than a glance.

We'll up the ante on our Rio sale rumor with another juicy tidbit: As we've shared, could very well be a land play. New rumor suggests Rio could be demolished, site to be developed as (wait for it) Major League Baseball ballpark.

— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) October 8, 2018

We cannot stress enough that this rumor is exactly that: a rumor. Though whispers of a Rio sale aren’t exactly new, there has been no confirmation from anyone at Caesars Entertainment about plans for the property.

However, Vital Vegas is also reporting that Rio is scaling back its food service operations dramatically. The property is reducing its room service availability and mostly shutting down the butler service at its Palazzo Villa suites.

The blog speculates that this drawdown is due to the impending sale. To ascribe that sort of causality seems a bit premature at this point, and the moves don’t really reflect any kind of preparation or cost savings for a potential buyer, but it is part of the scuttlebutt.

Golden Knights’ success may be paving the way for an MLB team

Though the mention of a Major League Baseball stadium seems to come out of nowhere, there is some credibility to the notion that the big leagues would come to Nevada. For starters, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfredsaid as much during a radio show last July.

On the July 17 edition of The Dan Patrick Show, Manfred had this to say about expansion to the desert:

“I think Vegas is a viable expansion alternative. I think it’s big enough.”

Manfred hedged on anything definitive beyond that statement, however. He said his biggest priorities were to address the stadium issues facing the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays.

Of course, since that time, Oakland has managed to solve its problem. The city tapped world-famous architect Bjarke Ingels to design and construct a state-of-the-art facility to house the city’s remaining professional sports team.

Buildings To Be Torn Down

Ironically, Las Vegas is responsible for part of Oakland’s loss of sports franchises. The Oakland Raiderswill move to the desert city in 2020.

Thanks to that move and the almost-overnight success of the Las Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas is rapidly becoming a sports destination. So, even though there’s nothing to take to court about a Rio demolition and subsequent stadium, there is some credibility to the notion.

On the other hand, Las Vegas has been home to a AAA baseball team for many years. In fact, the Las Vegas 51s are moving into an ultra-posh, brand-new ballpark in 2019, so it does stretch belief that a big league franchise and a stadium would show up so soon afterward.

Maybe, maybe not

A sale of the Rio would also create a complication regarding the home of the World Series of Poker. The pinnacle of the poker year has held court at the Brazilian-themed casino every June since 2005.

Back in early August 2018, Vital Vegas floated a rumor that the WSOP would move into the new Caesars Convention Center once construction on the $375 million property completed. At the time, a spokesman from Caesars flatly denied the rumors of a move for the tournament series, and that was the last word about the issue.

Rio Casino To Be Torn Down Lyrics

So, for now, whispers about big-time baseball in the desert will have to remain unconfirmed. However, another run at a Stanley Cup or a resurgent Raiders team in the Super Bowl might start the conversation for real.

Be Torn Down

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