The four-year deal, under which St George Illawarra play home matches against the Rabbitohs at the SCG until the end of the current NRL broadcast agreement in 2017, is the first attempt by clubs to follow the lead of their AFL counterparts by working together to turn regular season games into marquee events. Collingwood chief executive Gary Pert said in last Saturday's Herald that growing membership and crowd figures were vital to the financial viability of NRL clubs and Dragons CEO Peter Doust and his Rabbitohs counterpart, Shane Richardson, agree. St George Illawarra are already involved in the annual Anzac Day game with Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium, while Souths and Canterbury play each Good Friday at ANZ Stadium but neither match involves clubs sharing the gate receipts as the Dragons and Rabbitohs will on Saturday night. While there has been criticism about the efforts of some clubs to promote games by withholding star players from the media when they play away, that will not be the case this week from Souths. In fact, the charm offensive has already begun, with Sam Burgess being available to reporters for 10 minutes after Sunday's loss to Canberra in what was the English superstar's first real interview since announcing he was defecting to rugby union at the end of the season.

Souths and St George Illawarra will conduct a joint news conference on Tuesday, featuring Sutton and NSW Origin fullback Josh Dugan, who will make his first appearance of the season for the top of the table Dragons next Saturday night, along with former greats from both clubs. "We have got a commitment from the NRL to have this as our home game for the next four years and Souths have been very keen, given the size of their brand, to work together to share in our opportunities," Doust said. "For many, many years, the Dragons have been the leading team at away venues and we have always argued that the investment we have made in our brand over the last 14 years as St George Illawarra has not always been reciprocated by the teams we have played. "But with Souths we can't say that and they have had a very, very successful recent era so this is a great opportunity for us to build a support base around this marquee event that we can share and to work together to drive attendances. "That is what we have to do in rugby league – we need to get more flavour behind each of our games to give people a reason to put aside whatever else they have got to do in their busy lives and come to our game. The AFL has been doing it for 10 years with their games."

Since 2007, crowds at the ANZAC Day match between the Dragons and Roosters has grown from 18,240 to 40,752 last season, while last year's Good Friday fixture between Souths and the Bulldogs drew a then-record NRL regular season of 51,686. Unlike the AFL, which has a formal gate-sharing arrangement for all games, NRL clubs usually only bank the profits from home games but Richardson predicted deals like the one between Souths and the Dragons would become more common. "What Gary Pert said in your paper on Saturday about growing crowds is exactly what I have been saying for ages and Saturday night is the start of that," Richardson said. "It is the start of two great clubs working together to promote a traditional game at a traditional ground and then reciprocating that back at ANZ Stadium later in the season. "This is the first time it has been done in the NRL but I think it will be the first of many occasions where we have reciprocal rights and the clubs work together with our biggest stars to promote the game for the game's sake."