The 10 team format was ridiculous. A team that loses 2 out of 3 of its group game goes straight to the semi final.

Only in the pantomime of RL.

good point, well made.

An extra 4 teams isnt going to turn the tournament from a success to a failure. Id say the biggest reason the 2000 tournament failed was that too many games were played away from rugby league heartlands not that there were too many teams in the tournament.
The lesser nations were in seperate groups not in a seperate tournament in 2008 as you suggest. Why cant the seeded pool idea be expanded in a 14 team format? Such as.

group 1 aus, eng, tonga, samoa. 3 teams progress
group 2 nz, france, png, fiji. 3 teams progress
group 3 wales, ireland, qualifier. 1 progesses
group 4 scotland, lebanon, qualifier. 1 team progresses

Does anyone think that a 'World Cup Pass' idea could help boost crowds at the games which don't involve AUS, ENG and NZ playing each other. You pay £40/£50 or so and you get entry to all games which do not include the three big teams. I know I'd give it a serious thought and as we all know, stranger ideas have been rubber stamped at Red Hall.

An idea worthy of consideration if to get one you had to have already purchased a ticket to one of the "premier" games.
The ECB did something similar when in order to see an Australian one day game vs England at Headingley you had to get a ticket (at a much lower cost) to see Bangladesh I believe a couple of days earlier.