Take: Minneapolis City Hall should host New Year's Eve broadcast
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London, January 1, 2025. Cool, right? Photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images
🙏 Kyle here with a plea: The Central Time Zone needs a real live New Year's Eve spectacle — and Minneapolis City Hall would be the perfect place for it.
Why it matters: We deserve better than another year of Nashville's Big Bash.
Hear me out: The world's coolest New Year's Eve celebration takes place around Big Ben in London (sorry, Times Square), where the chimes trigger a thundering fireworks display over the River Thames.
- Well, guess what! Minneapolis City Hall's clock tower is taller, and its clock face is larger, than its British rival — and its hourly chime sounds really nice.
The fine print: City Hall's Carillon Committee has scheduled a bell concert for 11pm on New Year's Eve — but as of last week, it was unclear whether a ringer would volunteer to play it, a city spokesperson told Axios.
Zoom out: ABC did throw the Midwest a bone this year, with "Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve" broadcast set to feature a live Central Time countdown from Chicago's riverfront.
Yes, but: The issue isn't that we need a live countdown announced from a concert stage; we've had that before.
- What we need is a centerpiece for that countdown: the Midwest's equivalent of a ball to drop — except the whole ball drop concept is getting a little played out.
🔔 The Brits have had it right all along: Gather around your grandest clock tower, put some drones in the sky, and ring in the new year — literally.
- Minneapolis, it's time to answer the bell.