in the 1995 RLWC i think there were 8, with many nations playing in the emerging nations tournament
in the 2000 RLWC there were 16 with a smaller emerging tournament including, japan, usa, morocco, BARLA (british amateurs) Canada
the 2000 RLWC ran at a loss
because it was played in the the middle of british winter in appalling conditions, typically poor League promotion and terrible public transport
some people blamed the amount of teams, but this is totally unjustified
if the RLWC was played in Australia there is no way in my opinion there should be less than 16 nations.
The fact is that in Australian Spring, when the weather is great, transport excellent, and heaps of rugby league support the tournament can definitely make a huge profit
capacity crowds at places such as newcastle, gosford, townsville, wollongong etc would be assured no matter which teams were playing
places such as gold coast, brisbane, sydney, canberra would sell out easily with a little promotion
whilst respectable crowds would be easily attainable in perth, adelaide, and melbourne
the key is promotion, a ticket balloting system, plus more promtion
the kangaroos must be promoted rightfully as the premier national sporting team
they must be showcased from the east coast to the west coast
plus televsion is also important
it is important that the tv rights are sold for respectable amounts of money to channel 9, fox, tv 3 nz, sky sports nz, sky uk , plus may other nations around the world
sponsorship is also important
the irb have done great with their sponsorship, clearing all the sponsorship around the grounds and smothering them in the world cup sponsors
we would have to do the same
if the RLWC was done right we could have up to 20 teams
however the right number for a world cup in australia is definitely 16
mostly the same nations as last time, except, leave out nz maori and bring in another qualifier
i think 16 is a must
and id like to see
aus
nz
eng
ireland
scotland
wales
russia
fiji
lebanon
cook islands
south africa
png
tonga
france
samoa
usa