New Times Square ball will be used for holidays in 2009

YONKERS, N.Y. -- Next month, it'll be the famous New Year's Eve ball. Next year, it could be the Great Pumpkin.

A bigger, brighter Waterford crystal ball will usher in 2009 above Times Square, then remain in place all year to celebrate other holidays including Valentine's Day, the Fourth of July and Halloween, organizers said Monday.

"You won't have to be here on Dec. 31 anymore to see the Times Square ball," said Jeff Straus, president of Countdown Entertainment. "You can come any time now and it will be up there like a jewel, every day. And we expect to have special programming for special days."

The new ball, which was being assembled Monday at a studio in Yonkers, is 12 feet in diameter and weighs nearly 6 tons. Last year's ball was 6 feet across and less than a ton.

The flagpole that was used for previous balls wasn't considered sturdy enough, so a new shaft was built, and steel bracing was added to the building beneath it, 1 Times Square.

"We pretty much had to redesign the top of the building," Straus said.

The ball is a geodesic dome built of 2,468 Waterford crystal triangles, each etched with a stylized starburst or a stylized angel, Waterford spokesman Peter Cheyney said.

The made-in-Ireland triangles, about 5 inches on a side and half an inch thick, combine to make a translucent ball that serves as a canvas for a computerized light show that will begin at about 6 p.m. New Year's Eve, six hours before the ball's minute-long descent marks the new year.

Inside, the ball is filled with electric cables, heat sinks and fans, but outside it seems fragile. At its highest, the ball will be 475 feet above Times Square.

It's the seventh ball in the 101-year history of ball-dropping at Times Square. It's being paid for privately, said publicist Thomas Chiodo. Straus estimated the cost at several million dollars.