So we guess it’s not a good time to be building half-billion-dollar theme parks these days anywhere on Earth, even in the formerly cash rich Middle East. We’re not exactly surprised to hear one of the dumbest and largest money pits in entertainment history, F1-X the first Formula One theme park, has hit the construction skids.

The place is apparently 50 percent constructed, and in an overly optimistic statement filled with the kind of doublespeak we’ve come to expect from just about every press release related to money these days, the group building the joint, Developers Union Properties, tells us that the park will now be opened in 2010 instead of this year. Um, sure it will be.

Right after the release tells us the delay is only temporary, Penny Fischer, a spokesperson for the project, used some comically dramatic language to express shock that the money tap has been shut off, “With construction more than 50 percent complete, the core of international expertise on the ground and operational plans virtually complete, it is hard to believe that a financial partner will not come forward in coming days or weeks to capitalize on the opportunity.” In an awesome note, the word capitalize was actually misspelled in their release. We guess the $460 million construction budget didn’t include spell check.