Times Square Ball Drop: The Publicity Stunt That Outlived Its Newspaper

A stunt built for a newspaper

Adolph Ochs needed the city to look up. His paper had just moved into a narrow tower where Broadway meets Seventh Avenue, and the address was new enough that it needed advertising. So on December 31, 1907, he dropped a ball from the roof: iron and wood, 700 pounds, lit by 100 bulbs. It rang in the year and, not incidentally, put the building's name in every headline.

That part worked. The New York Times became one of the most widely read papers in the country, outgrew the tower, and moved its newsroom elsewhere.

A billboard that drops a ball

One Times SquareTimes SquareThe neon canyon at Broadway and Seventh Avenue, the world's most visited and most locally avoided intersection. has not been a busy office building for decades. It survives as a stack of screens and advertising, and, for one night a year, as a launchpad. Offices above the signage have sat largely unused, which is the quiet joke of the address: the most filmed building in America is also one of its emptiest.

The hardware has been replaced many times over. Today's ball is a 12-foot geodesic sphere weighing 11,875 pounds and covered in 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles, and it still descends from the same address every December 31.

A ritual that outgrew its purpose

The original pitch, come see our building, is moot. The building is mostly empty. The ritual outgrew the newspaper, and the crowd now gathers under a billboard to watch an advertisement that has been running for more than a century. What began as a marketing expense is now the city's most reliable appointment: a weight on a pole, a countdown, and a few hundred thousand people who came for the same reason Ochs did, to be there when the year turns.

Doing it yourself

Arrive in the afternoon. Police let crowds into viewing pens along Broadway and Seventh Avenue well before dark, and once you are inside you stay, there is no re-entry and no public restroom. The ball drops in the final minute before midnight. Official entry points change each year, so check the Times Square Alliance and NYPD guidance before you go. Standing still for hours in late December feels colder than the number on the weather app suggests, layers, hand warmers and a thermos matter more than a camera.

Pair the night with something warm earlier: a Broadway show that ends before 10 p.m., or the tree at Rockefeller CenterRockefeller CenterThe Art Deco complex hosting the winter ice rink, Christmas tree, Radio City and NBC studios., both within walking distance. Trains run through Grand Central TerminalGrand Central TerminalThe 1913 Beaux-Arts rail terminal with the turquoise zodiac ceiling, whispering gallery and oyster bar. a few blocks east if you want to leave the area fast.

If standing outdoors for eight hours is not the plan, several nearby venues sell indoor New Year's Eve packages with warmth, seating and bathrooms, a reserved party space near the square from $250 (estimated) per person. Check traveler reviews on the activity page before choosing one.

More on the place itself: broadway show.