Californian vs Korean race track

I was checking out the Joe Saward blog today.
He talked about a new track complex destined for Korea.
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/williams-and-a-korean-race-track/#comments

Taken from the Korean Times today.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2013/02/388_130750.html

For the project, Weingrow will construct a five-kilometer FIA Grande 1 racetrack, a seven-star hotel with 220 rooms, restaurants and bars, conference facilities and driving training center.

Stark said the budget for the project will not exceed $1 billion with the money being raised from partners and investors, refusing to elaborate more on the fundraising process and to name investors.

It appears WilliamsF1 are partners in the sense they will be suppliers, not investors. This is how it looks to me.

This is a rich mans club. My proposal would have University at its core, and would reach out to a global clientele.

The $1 billion quoted in the article refers I assume to American dollars. In my previous article I quote $80,000,000 as my first guess at a budget for my California campus.

The Korean proposal cost over ten times this amount...

As an outsider, there is no chance of me talking to these guys and finding out how they will spend the money.

My proposal envisages 5 miles of F1 quality track, this gives us the opportunity to encompass different types of racing track. The Korean proposal has 3 miles of track.

I have budgeted $10 million for student accomodation, these people are going to build a 220 room 7 Star hotel. That would be expensive!

As I said in my previous article on the Californian proposal $80,000,000 and counting. I can easily see spending more on accomodation and the University/Stadium, plus if you throw in a solar farm you immediately go into $200,000,000 type investment. I'm not an accountant, and its not as if I have built a multitude of Motorsport based campuses, so maybe my best guess is off. By a factor of 10, I find hard to believe.

They, the Koreans, must feel there are a lot of very wealthy clients out there willing to spend a lot of money on their hobby.

Maybe there are!