The Place

The £90 million loan is in addition to the taxpayer underwriting 50% of the full amount Phil. Which is actually still poor maths as I can't make that add up to anything like their quoted figures either - but then again, I'm just an ill-educated boy from Tooting.

To service the kind of funding required for this project, any venture needs to have a gross margin of just under £20,000 a day (365 days a year). Gross Margin in motorsport venue ownership runs at about 45% of turnover as a rule of thumb.
Now, whilst that IS a big number, it can be done and is only really 3 times the amount that Donington Park actually can achieve in ideal operating conditions.

Donington Park has lots of other income streams to reach that figure, but in fairness the CoW has also got an impressive list of other income streams contained within their plans.
The key differences (not ignoring the fact that CoW requires 3 times the amount) are that Airparks, Richie Bros Auctions, the Sunday Market, Formula-E etc all actually EXIST and are really paying real rent - with real money. I don't see any real companies lining up to pay rent or invest in CoW at the moment.

Donington Park is also in a far better area from the point of view of Road, Rail and Air links.

I know first hand how difficult it is to keep occupancy of industrial units at a race circuit anywhere near 100% and I just don't think it's possible to get the right money per square meter in Ebbw Vale, or the occupancy ratio retention at anything near the required level.

When I see the real businesses putting their money into the pot I'll believe that it can happen, but right now there is no money, just a lot of hot air (and lawn clippings).

Am I being really thick here (again) Dave?
This fiasco just gets worse and worse, so how is 'underwriting' different to a 'loan' in public funds terms of exposure to 'failure to pay up when required'.
Accepting that the values do not add up coherently in the first place, the 'underwriting' and 'loan' equates to the taxpayer funding over 76% of the headline 'total'.
Given that the 'loan' is underpinned by the balance of the total amount required (to do exactly what, we do not know) comprising 17% of 'Private sector funds', that means that only 81% of the whole project is funded (total of £282.5M of £347M) in the first place - ohh err.
But then I do not exist in the corporate finance world - so my maths might not be 'fluffy' enough!

The other thing that Dave previously touched on is more pertinent, given the amount of funding required to launch this place, in use (ho ho ho) terms would it end up being another Silverstone? - in that it would cream off all the prestige (motorcycle) events (because they pay more), while pricing out the sport supporting club events, thereby giving nothing back to the grass roots. At the very least, Donnington also hosted club events while it had the bike GP rights.
I remember when Silverstone got all sniffy about hosting motorcycle club events by severly upping the cost of hire overnight, "because car 'people' have deeper pockets" (causing the MCC (the last club to use Silverstone) to abandon a meeting and circuit they had for decades).
Do I want another 'cream off' mob like that at 'Silverstone' competing within the existing motorcycle business, absolutely not.

Dustbin CoW, get the M/C GP back at Donnington where it properly belongs, away from the antiseptic (in spectator terms) moneygrabbing Northants.