Garcia: First-ever Unite Round provides building blocks for future success
A-Leagues boss Nick Garcia believes the first Unite Round has provided the building blocks for a marquee event that will both repair relations with supporters and meet NSW government expectations.
Commissioner Nick Garcia has said the A-Leagues and Destination NSW are pleased with the foundations laid by the competitions’ first Unite Round, with planning already underway to improve on the concept and use it as a platform to help restore relationships with the leagues’ jilted fanbase.
Implemented to replace the hideously unpopular deal with the NSW tourism and major events agency to stage A-League Men’s and Women’s grand finals in Sydney, the Unite Round instead brought all 13 of the leagues’ teams to the Harbour City to play games 12 games across Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Speaking on Thursday, Garcia had said that if the event was able to hit year one crowds in the “early 30,000s we'd be doing really well” and, ultimately, the league said that it had surpassed the figure, declaring a cumulative attendance of 47,425.
In the context of similar events staged by other Australian leagues, the NRL’s fourth Magic Round attracted 147,105 fans in 2023 and the AFL’s first Gather Round lured 268,000 through the gates last year.
“They’ve got a lot more interstate travel than we did at the grand final,” Garcia told AAP and JDL Media. “I think for DNSW and us, it was all about getting the building blocks; can we put the tournament on? Will the clubs get behind it? Will fans come? I think the answer is a resounding yes.
“Would we want more fans? Of course we would. Next year we'll be thinking about how we do this [sell tickets] as early as possible.
“We really have to think about how we make the clubs a vehicle to push this. The clubs have been great but the reality is they have to push their own fixtures and everything else.
“We’re going to look at when it happens in the season, maybe earlier potentially. But am I happy with where we are now? Yes — in the context of the longer plan.”
To some extent, that the Unite Round was the price that needed to be paid for the abandonment of the grand final deal meant it was largely seen as a success by A-Leagues’ supporters almost immediately upon its October announcement.
But providing some tangible validation for the move, 11,383 more supporters were present over Unite Round than the 36,042 on hand for the men’s and women’s deciders staged under that previous agreement. Further, while exact figures are still being determined, it’s believed the APL anticipates it will be determined that more than three times as many people travelled to NSW for the Unite Round than did for the grand finals.
Nonetheless, with just a 12-week runaway between announcement and delivery, the growing pains and lessons associated with creating a new event from scratch were apparent.
Attendees weren’t able to use their club memberships to access fixtures throughout the weekend and there were few activations or events taking place outside stadiums or around Sydney to differentiate the Unite Round fixtures from a standard A-Leagues’ contest. There was no merchandise or other mementos of the occasion.
In an informal poll of fans conducted by well-followed Twitter satire account @TheRealALM, the ability to use memberships to access games was an oft-repeated request, as was moving it earlier or later in the season and away from the summer heat, staging more games across single days, and ensuring that clubs men’s and women’s sides played back-to-back.
“The critical thing is, it will be announced and planned as part of the full season fixture that we will build in next year,” said Garcia.
“I think that's really important because it helps the clubs and helps the fans. I think the other thing is I think we need to make sure it's got the best possible matchups.
“I think we did some cool stuff [outside stadiums]. I think the women’s grassroots [events] were good, and the cultural parade was good. But there's more we can do for sure. I think it should be something that is much more than just 90 minutes of football.
“At two months' notice, that’s hard if you’re coming from Wellington or Perth. We always knew it'd be really tough on crowds in year one and I think where we've landed is not bad.
“I would like to think fan relationships are improving. We’ve clearly got some way to go but this is going to take time to [repair]. The product is good and we’re seeing exciting football but we’ve got to re-engage the fans.
“To be honest I think that’s a problem post-COVID. Maybe not at the top end of town, but we have to think differently about how we re-engage them.”
The Australian top flight does provide a point of difference to its rivals by bringing both their men’s and women’s leagues together for their event.
A-League Women fixtures were staged at Leichhardt Oval on Friday and Saturday evening as part of the round, before serving as the first leg of a doubleheader at Parramatta and the Sydney Football Stadium on Thursday and the A-Leagues boss said that the model was a selling point.
“I think we’d look at everything but we have a really unique position in Australia towards bringing everyone together in one city on one weekend,” Garcia said. There's a lot of learning to see who's travelled, what our crossovers have been and then we can make informed decisions.”
Joey Lynch has travelled to Sydney for Unite Round as a guest of the Australian Professional Leagues.