Checklist for staging a World Cup. Good looking trophy? Check. Lots of teams from faraway countries? Check. TV coverage and sponsorship? Check. Enthusiastic organisers? Check.
Eight years since the last World Cup, rugby league's showpiece event begins today in Townsville, when England faces Papua New Guinea.
Over 28 days, 10 teams will compete to be crowned world champion at Suncorp Stadium on November22.
Canberra gets a taste of the action, hosting Scotland and France at Canberra Stadium tomorrow.
It all looks and sounds terrific.
Yet for all that, it's hard to ignore the collective smirk of those in rival sports and even within league about the tournament's credibility.
Will it be anything more than a cakewalk with icing for the dominant Kangaroos? Will crowds turn up and viewers tune in to watch it in the middle of the spring racing carnival?
Should there even be such a thing for a sport with an established standing in just four or five nations?
For organisers hoping to stack up the planks of credibility, the arrivals lounge at the Sydney airport hasn't been a particularly good place to look.
The team representing Ireland, a nation whose interest in rugby league seems as strong as Australia's is in hurling, arrived last week to a reception by curious news crews.
But bereft of any idea about the strength of the Irish team, the interviews focussed on the unfortunate name of one player, Wayne Kerr. He dutifully gave the journalists what they came for, explaining in his Irish lilt, ''As my ma always said to me, she gave me my name for a reason, so it would never be forgotten.''
Enter Scotland. The only televised quotes from players at its airport arrival related to whether chicks dig kilts (apparently they do). Their best attended media session so far was when they were fed haggis.
Even an attempt to drum up media interest in the Papua New Guinea team backfired early this week when a press-release writer confused PNG pidgin with the bird of a similar sounding name.
Of course the tournament isn't all minnow nations and colour stories.
There is a serious side to it. It is called Australia.
Tomorrow the Kangaroos team, which for the first time in eight years includes a Canberra Raider, Joel Monaghan, faces a New Zealand team widely considered its only true rival.
Even that clash has been talked down as a possible mismatch, coming as it does in the wake of heavy losses by the Kiwis in the last two encounters, 58-0 in Wellington last October and 28-12 in the Centenary Test at the SCG in May.
Plenty rides on its outcome. Few expect Australia to lose, but if it romps to victory the doomsayers will close in on the tournament.
Looking at the Kiwi team on paper, bolstered by the likes of Benji Marshall, it should not go down so easily this time.
And that will give heart to ARL boss and tournament director Colin Love, who has had to defend the tournament from critics who say it will be lop-sided and won't capture enough public interest.
Love has drawn comparisons with the Rugby Union World Cup, which has grown from humble beginnings to become the world's third largest sporting event.
''This tournament will lay a foundation of success for rugby league,'' Love said last week.
''Rugby union played their World Cup in Australia in 1987 and it was played at Concord Oval, a suburban ground in Sydney and it has since become a major international event.''
The Rugby Union World Cup faces its own credibility questions each four years when minnow nations, such as Namibia or Georgia, are thoroughly routed by the bigger nations.
However lop-sided the results in the league tournament, 100-plus scorelines seem unlikely given it is hard to pile on points in league.
Naturally the tournament's staunchest defenders are its players, particularly those from teams expected to be also-rans.
French captain Jerome Guisset, whose team is a $101 shot to win the cup, said league badly needed the tournament. He said the criticisms had washed over his squad.
''Most of the French boys speak French so we don't really understand the critics,'' Guisset, who played one season with the Canberra Raiders in 1999, said.
''We're just concentrating on what we've got to do. If we do things right I'm sure we won't get criticised.''
His teammate Eric Anselme, a back-rower now playing for the Leeds Rhinos, said the tournament would elevate the code in his country, where soccer dominated and rugby union ran second.
''In France it's very difficult to get in the media ... I think we need some more help and some more tournaments to get in the papers and in the news.''
Manly winger Michael Robertson will be in the opposing camp to the French tomorrow afternoon. While he has never been to Scotland, he said the World Cup was a legitimate opportunity for rugby league to show its international colours.
''For me, playing for Scotland is a way to represent my grandfather and my family heritage. To be part of the World Cup, bringing all the best blokes from every country around the world together is going to be exciting.''
That notion of an international sporting celebration is one the tournament should promote.
It will be largely why people turn up to Canberra Stadium tomorrow despite neither team being cup contenders.
About 3000 tickets have been sold so far, but with complimentary tickets and walk-ups on the day, organisers expect more than 10,000 at the ground by kick-off.
As soccer and rugby World Cups have shown, the most enthralling matches are often played between teams who don't progress from their pools.
So aside from the understood strengths of Australia, New Zealand and England, how tight will the rest of the tournament be?
According to bookmaker Glenn Munsie, it is anyone's guess as to how competitive a match such as Ireland versus Tonga might be.
''When you've got sides cobbled together, you can't get an accurate guide on how they'll play, so we're dead-set guessing,'' Munsie said.
''Our blokes look at the teams with NRL players in them and work out how those players rate and put them together and we try to come up with a price that way.
''The line is much more difficult. You think a side will win, but it's hard to work out how much they'll win by.''
Based on that, Canberra league fans shouldn't let the odds (France $1.13, Scotland $5.50) deter them from venturing out.
Monaghan, who will make his long-awaited Kangaroos debut on the wing tomorrow, said the tournament deserved support as it tried to take a step ahead.
''To play in a World Cup, get my first Aussie jumper in my own country is massive.
''The tournament has had some criticism, but once it starts and you see a couple of the games it will be all put away,'' he said.
''It's been a few years since the last tournament and they've worked on some things and I think you'll see a much better tournament that's going to grow over the next 10 years.''
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