Although this year is not representative, I’ve always heard in the family that one thing NOT shown is that the crowds rapidly clear out after midnight - as people leave to go to parties. The networks never show this and I’ve often wondered about it.
P.S. I’ll not be staying up, so a “Time’s Square Cam” might work for someone who would be kind enough to check and report back. (I’ll not be staying up - if the neighbor finally stops his regular round of firecrackers from midnight to 1 AM!)
So is the question here why the networks don’t show how the crowds walk away from Times Square? I suppose that’s simply because it would be a rather boring thing to watch. By the time the crowds start doing that, the networks have long moved on to something else.
Yeah, the networks also don’t show the crowds leaving the football game or the Thanksgiving Day parade or any other large event.
I’m kind of wondering what the OP is wondering about - if you think the event in Times Square is some big open air party , it’s not, and it wasn’t even before 2001. And now it is a physically uncomfortable event . You have to arrive by mid-afternoon to get a spot and morning is better. Once you are in the viewing area you can’t leave without forfeiting your spot - and there are no restrooms available. Many people wear diapers. There are no food and beverage vendors - and remember, if you leave you forfeit your spot. There is no reason why anyone would want to stay once minute after the ball drops , even if they aren’t on their way to a party.
Speaking of wee hours - where do all those people pee? Are there hundreds of of port-o-potties just around the corner? I assume much drinking and cold weather conspire to up the output, as it were.
No, as I understand it the question is how quickly the crowds clear out after midnight. The networks not showing it is just the reason the OP has to ask. And I think @doreen answered the question.
Nitpick for @Bonum_Legatum: It’s “Times Square” without the apostrophe, because it’s named after the New York Times.
See above -
Once you are in the viewing area you can’t leave without forfeiting your spot - and there are no restrooms available. Many people wear diapers.
Of course they do. I’ve seen pictures on CNN to when the empty square is being cleaned up less than an hour after the party. More amazing to me is that the subways etc. handle this load. They just don’t dwell on the process. Typically they are also cutting to the parties in Florida, and the build up to New Orleans.
There’s not much to see, Times Square is long and skinny with the cross streets fairly close together, and subways on the Avenues on both sides and actually right along Broadway. Just behind the ball drop is a station with a shuttle to the green line, plus 3 other lines. The crowds probably disappear in a matter of minutes down the cross streets.
I was under the impression that this is exactly what it was. A big open air party with vendors for food and beverage, souvenirs, music, various entertainers, etc. And of course plenty of portable bathrooms. Guess I was wrong about that 
.
ETA: I’m basing this on my experience at the turn of the millennium. I was on the Las Vegas Strip for that one, and it was in fact a big open air party.
My memory from decades ago: You’re standing in a shallow lake of urine and beer, stumbling over empty bottles and cans. The crowd is so dense that you can lift up your feet and still be held upright by those around you.
Something everyone should experience once… and only once.
And yeah, the subways do a great job of dispersing the crowd afterwards. As well as the cops who don’t let an infinite number of people onto the platforms.
OK - I’ll clarify. The point being - how quickly such a large crowd can disperse and leave the square empty. As was told to me - it is more quickly than other crowd events.
It would be interesting if one of the networks could follow a group of people attending the event, so that everyone in the hinterlands could see what the full experience is like.
From what I’ve gathered from news reports and the event on TV, they issue tickets to control the crowds? If not, the place is full well before sundown, so people stop showing up well before the TV show starts and police shoo away any later arrivals, so no lethal crushes. And each “corral” has a limited number of people allowed, at which point it is closed. I assume if it’s like any other event (I’ve been to the Rockefeller tree lighting, as crowded but smaller area) people who get there first stake out their position nearest the front of the barriers, and others risk setting off shoving matches and fights if they try to push their way through to the front. So… first come, first serve.
The side streets are only 250 feet apart, and also closed off the traffic so there are plenty of exits on both sides when the fun is done. People exiting don’t have to stick to the sidewalks for the first block… As you can see on TV, the events pretty much stop once after midnight, so everyone leaves after the main event.
Reading the website, it appears it is not a ticketed event - but this year people were not allowed into the square until 3PM, and because of COVID the individual corrals were not packed as tightly as normal.
I watched to see if they showed people leaving. There was no obvious footage on CNN on Dick Clark, but the after-midnight shots did seem to show a very much depleted area with plenty of bare pavement in the audience areas by quarter after.
Wow, you learn something new every day.
I thought it was a big party. I can’t imagine why anyone would spend all that time and effort only to watch a ball drop. Seems silly, even in the realm of silly ideas.
Yep. Been there, done that. And it sucks.
Nice to have the bragging rights and life experience but no freaking way we’d ever do it again.
We had a hotel in the area that cost an astronomical amount per night and we were required to book for at least 2 nights. And we had it reserved for over a year. As soon as midnight hit we got the hell out of there and into our hotel.
I climbed Mount Sinai in … wait for it … the Sinai, just to see the sunrise. get up at 1AM, drive 2 hours, start walking/climbing at 3AM in pitch dark, freeze your everything off - to see… the sun come up. And back down we go.
Going somewhere to with an event that’s broadcast on TV every year seems like a picnic by comparison. But yes, probably only do it once. I went to see the Macy’s parade one year when it was 15°F and a brisk wind.