Andrew Fox (above), founder of NewYears.com, is finding people will spend a lot—even in a tight economy — to party in Midtown on New Year’s Eve. The party-space impresario, who expects he’ll sell 125,000 tickets, is sure to makeamint on those ringing in 2012. (Warzer jaff)
If you’re looking to be at a Times Square party tomorrow night as the New Year’s Eve ball drops, chances are you’ll have to go through Andrew Fox.
The Queens-born entrepreneur has spent the past dozen years quietly sewing up the increasingly big business of celebrating the New Year — selling millions of tickets for champagne-and-mistletoe events at clubs, restaurants and hotels at the Crossroads of the World — and across the US.
The effort is now bearing fruit as NewYears.com — one of more than 600 New Year-related Web domain names Fox has vacuumed up in his bid for Dec. 31 dominance — is helping make him one of the largest Times Square area New Year’s party people.
Fox has slyly inked deals with locations as diverse as Madame Tussauds wax museum and TGI Friday’s.
He recently sold a $20,000 reservation for seating at a Tussauds bash on West 42nd Street while hawking a “private VIP table for 2” tomorrow at the TGI Friday’s located at Seventh Avenue and 50th Street.
The Friday’s spot will set you back $1,300.
“It’s all about the location — people want to be in the middle of the action, and that’s what they’ll pay for,” the 38-year-old Fox told The Post.
With more than a million partygoers expected to pack into the Times Square vicinity tomorrow night, Fox’s New York company, Holiday Events, expects to sell tickets to 125,000 of them — a jump of more than 25 percent over last year.
A resurgence of tourism this year is part of what’s fueling the growth, according to Fox, with Western Europeans, Australians and Russians accounting for about 70 percent of the total.
But Fox, who estimates he’s promoting four out of every five private events in Times Square this year, likewise credits his own efforts to make the celebrations more affordable and, in some cases, family-friendly.
“We would rather focus on what you could call mass appeal,” says Fox. “The really cool people in the city get everything for free, and would never pay for anything. But tourists want a seat at the table, too.”
Having lately added tourist haunts like the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum, Fox says he’s still working on signing up big national chains to partner with him in party-throwing.
“You’ve got to educate them on the opportunity,” according to Fox. “We pay on time, we pay a fair rate and we handle all the sales and marketing. All we ask them to do is turn the key and open the door.”