I'm sure Eamonn Mcmanus said last year that losing a CC semi is a lot worse than a playoff semi as the rewards for Wembley are twice that of Old Trafford.

When we put 60 on you at a canter.
Now sit down and play with your toys

Nothing to do with prize money, McManus stated that (in St Helens' case at least) prize money is always shared among the players, win or lose Saints wouldn't have made any more or less money. The financial gain is determined by the size of the gate money share (CC=3 way split, GF=9 way split therefore a club is likely to make about 3 times more from a CC final appearance).

does anyone remember when they used to print the CC prize money for each round in the match programmes ??? do they still do that?

How is the WCC money split? losing the GF could be significantly different to winning it, well if you can get a decent crowd for the WCC that is

Would imagine it will be split between the two clubs,the RFL and the NRL. The CC final and GF both get crowds of 70-odd thousand though and the WCC gets less than half that crowd so it is hardly likely to make up the difference between the gate money for the comparative domestic finals. A losing CC final appearance will still make more for a club than winning the GF and appearing in the WCC.