After a series of missteps and limited success capitalising on the momentum generated by the Matildas and Socceroos on the global stage, the A-Leagues’ decision to follow the lead of the NRL and AFL with a single-city round is about to be put to the test. In their latest effort to generate hype among football fans who too often snub the top-tier national competitions, both domestic leagues descend on Sydney for Unite Round this weekend. A day out from the inaugural edition kicking off, there are signs this could be a path worth following with more than 42,000 fans expected to visit Sydney for 12 matches across 12-14 January. Unite Round is the Australian Professional Leagues’ (APL) own version of the NRL’s Magic Round and AFL’s Gather Round, but will have every match in the men’s and women’s competitions played in the one city. The APL was slower off the mark to introduce a feature round – and it took a wayward decision and belated U-turn to get there – but it may now help boost football attendances that are yet to fully recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. The A-League Men has had an average of 8,347 fans attend their 67 matches so far this season, slightly over 10% higher than last season. But attendances are still some way below the 10,423 average of 2018-19 before the pandemic struck and two new clubs – Macarthur and Western United – were added. The A-League Women have, however, seen a surge in support after the success of last year’s Women’s World Cup on home soil. Interest peaked early with a new league record of 11,471 attending the Sydney derby featuring Matildas penalty shootout hero Cortnee Vine in the opening round. Several clubs have since broken their attendance records, as the average has spiked to 2,400. Whether the A-Leagues can turn Unite Round into a destination event like Magic Round and Gather Round remains to be seen. The NRL paved the way in Australia for a feature round in one city when all eight matches were played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane across four days in 2019. The combined attendance for the NRL’s inaugural Magic Round was 134,677, while almost 150,000 fans turned out over three days in 2023. The AFL launched Gather Round in South Australia last year and showed a multi-venue approach can work with all nine matches sold out as the combined attendance passed 220,000. With Magic Round firmly locked into the fixture, the NRL are now looking further afield with the opening two matches of the season to be played in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the AFL are taking new, tentative steps with their opening round initiative, with four standalone feature games in the developing markets of Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast starting their season. While the NRL and AFL are moving on to their next ideas, the APL will firstly want this Unite Round to go off without any major issues. The feature round was only introduced after a deal to host the men’s and women’s A-League grand finals in 2023-25 exclusively in Sydney was announced mid-season and faced an intense backlash. That decision was scrapped after one season with a return to the traditional format in this country where the highest-ranked team hosts the grand final. The New South Wales government was instead handed the rights to hold Unite Round for at least two seasons. The APL has more recently been called out for a failure to properly publicise a significant rule change that could affect which clubs win the men’s and women’s premierships. These sorts of clumsy controversies tend to frustrate ardent fans as much as send eyes rolling among more casual observers. But there is hope the APL are learning the lessons of the past. Launching Unite Round on the same weekend as the Socceroos start their Asian Cup campaign in Qatar might have been another own goal. But a live site in Moore Park screening Australia’s opening match against India immediately after the A-League Men double-header finishes next door may turn out to be a masterstroke. It is these finer details that power brokers need to consistently get right to give the national competitions the best chance to flourish. Then it might actually be down to the football on the field – and on the big screens – to pull fans to A-League matches wherever they are played.