Only the sharpest marketing brain in the world need apply.
Selling tickets for a match in Dublin between two teams from France might even tax the bloke who could flog lawn mowers to families at the top of a block of flats.
But that is what faces the organisers after a Heineken Cup weekend when the Gauls roared louder than the Celts.
The final might have been an all-Irish affair at the home of Irish rugby, but it isn't.
 Toulouse are in the final for the first time since 1996 |
Organisers had already shifted 10,000 tickets before the weekend's semi-finals, so just another 38,000 to go over the next three weeks and we'll have a full house. It will provide a useful litmus test of the competition's universal appeal.
In fairness, only a fully signed-up member of Munster's Red Army expected to come away from Toulouse with anything more than a hangover.
But surely Leinster would do the business against the not-so-star-studded Perpignan 24 hours later? Anyone who sat watching Sunday's match from Lansdowne Road will know it will struggle to make the top 10,000 of all-time great encounters.
But there can be no doubt the proud Catalans deserved to upset the towering odds stacked against them.
 Football's bosses would not have trouble putting bums on seats for Real Madrid against Inter Milan in Manchester. |
The sound of deflation whistling around the old stadium at the end came as much from ticket touts - anticipating a Leinster/Munster bonanza - as disbelieving Dubliners. The decision to announce where the final would be played at the start of the tournament was the correct one.
It gave everyone a date and a venue to focus on as the dark winter months wore on. All roads led to Lansdowne on Saturday, 24 May.
Tournament chief executive Derek McGrath told me as late as Friday they were absolutely happy with the decision - and will do exactly the same next season.
He is right. You just have to accept the inevitable risk that two teams a thousand miles away will make it through to the final.
Perpignan's progress is the unlikeliest of European adventures. Sure, they saw off Munster and Gloucester in the pool stages, but they came mightily close to blowing it on the last weekend against Viadana.
 Perpignan's win was totally unexpected |
They were efficient rather than effervescent in the quarter-finals at Stradey Park. How would they have fared if Llanelli had played with a full complement of 15? Even on Sunday morning they gave the air of journeymen who suspected their road was about to end on the banks of the Liffey.
The sight of a rolling maul heading towards the hotel's espresso machine and hooker Michel Koniek wandering around cigarette in hand did not hint at a group preparing for feats of high athletic endeavour.
But the road to glory continues - and only the brave would bet against them dumping their supposed betters on their aristocratic behinds when they face Toulouse in a month.
It will be rugby's equivalent of Real Madrid against Barcelona, the pure whites against the blood red-and-golds, the regal establishment against the rebels. For that reason alone, both teams deserve the attention of Ireland's rugby-paying public. It is not their fault the home heroes couldn't close the deal.
Football's bosses would not have trouble putting bums on seats for Real Madrid against Inter Milan in Manchester.
Rugby's rulers will hope their fans find a party without the hosts equally appealing.
MMIX
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