New Orleans is certainly accustomed to hosting sporting events which draw the attention of a world audience, including Super Bowls, college national championships, heavyweight boxing championships and the like.

But if tourism officials have their way, the Crescent City will play host to the world’s third-largest sporting event: The Rugby World Cup, the international rugby championship which in 2019 drew a worldwide audience of almost 900 million, brought some 250,000 people to host city Tokyo and had an estimated economic impact of $5.6 billion, according to NOLA.com.

It now ranks behind only the Summer Olympics and the FIFA men’s (soccer) World Cup as the largest sporting events worldwide.

As with those other two events, the Rugy World Cup is held every four years and the 2023 tournament is already underway in France.

With the Rugby World Cup already set to come to the U.S. in 2031, New Orleans officials are hopeful the Caesars Superdome can serve as one of the venues and potentially host the final.

“It may be eight years out but we’re trying to get ahead of the curve in terms of being one of the city’s showing real interest in hosting the finals,” Tim Falcon, owner of New Orleans’ professional rugby team, told NOLA.com.

The report noted rugby championships fill stadiums across the globe in places like Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and France, but is still something of a curiosity in the U.S., although it is gaining in popularity at the youth and collegiate level.

The U.S. men’s rugby team ranks 18th in the world and failed to qualify for this year’s World Cup.