A planned Times Square ball drop for America’s 250th birthday is still on — but you’re not invited.
The New Year’s Eve-style event will continue as planned at midnight on July 3, organizers said Tuesday — in the wake of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new emergency order banning hundreds of public celebrations during the FIFA World Cup in the Big Apple.
But in a bizarre statement Tuesday, organizers said the show will go on anyway — without a crowd.
“The July 3rd Ball Drop is confirmed and will take place at One Times Square, alongside a live broadcast and celebration,” America250 and One Times Square said in a joint statement. “While there will not be a public event in the Times Square plazas, we are working through standard coordination with city partners and look forward to sharing additional details soon.”
It is unclear what exactly the event would resemble without spectators massing at the Crossroads of the World, as has long been part of the city’s New Year’s Eve bash.
The event has not yet received the needed permits to hold a public event and it’s unclear if they will, sources told The Post.
Officials at City Hall did not respond to repeated inquiries from The Post, while the NYPD referred all questions about the event to the mayor’s office.
The statement from organizers comes after the city Parks Department adopted a rule at the request of the NYPD, denying new permits for special events on park property during the tournament, which runs from June 11 to July 19.
The announcement prompted pushback from critics, including the NYPD Police Benevolent Association, which said the measure wouldn’t be necessary if the city did a better job hiring more cops to fill depleted ranks and keeping more of New York’s Finest from leaving.
“We’re still 6,000 cops short of peak staffing, with hundreds more leaving the job every month,” NYPD PBA President Patrick Hendry said Monday. “Police officers are already burned out by the short-staffing they experience on a daily basi.
“When this summer’s massive workload hits, it’s going to push even more of them out the door.”
Sources said the mid-summer Times Square ball drop could be among the events denied permits under Mamdani’s decree, but added that negotiations are ongoing.
Rosie Rios, who chairs America250, said last year that the July Times Square program calls for the ball to light up in red, white, and blue before 2,000 pounds of patriotic confetti are set off. Broadcast networks will screen a video to mark the occasion titled “America Turns 250.”
That will be followed by a “dynamic pyro finale” set to “America the Beautiful.”
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods
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