So far there is no need for money. The team is working to prove technical competence and once that is finished they will be working through on making the deal to acquire the game. No other group outside of the first effort with the Paragon Studios has gotten this far.
They were already running the game so competence was a no brainer. I don't know what the project does that this team is working on. It may be taking the original game and reverse engineeering it to get it running or some other display that NCSoft wants to see.
It could be a number of things not only game related. Remember running a game is a multipronged task, with websites, accounting, public relations, banking, development, supervision, servers, data administration, GM's for support. It might not be just a simple - code this and you guys are good sort of thing. NCSoft has to feel this team can run the game and do so in a manner that doesn't reflect poorly on NCSoft.
It is to OUR benefit that this is true as well!