...Seems like a nice waste of time and money. Yet naturally I can not suppress the hope that they do actually find something and prove the rest of the world wrong 
It seems you have gimlet vision and have almost hit upon what this really is. It's advertising copy, plain and simple it's like Buffalo Bill, but without any of the positives of championing the dissenfranchised (e.g. distortions, lies and a lot of showmanship). This man Brooks Agnew, propose to merge creationism with science and sell it to scientifically illiterate people.
No matter how the expedition ends it will be spun faster, harder, and with more panache than Bill O'Riley could hope to ever muster. If it fails his group will make up several stories (some involving suppression by the Gub'mint!, some by how a sacred pact was made with the 'Nephilim' and they were forced to leave behind all tangible evidence to save The World As We Know It!, and even if they do find anything they would not actually portray their findings accurately, it would end up being made sexy.) And like I said no matter how the wheel of fate spins it will sell books, dvds, lectures and seminars.
Now should there be beautiful elf women .... here's my $29.95 now where's my DVD?
Best regards, Your humble servant (for now), Baron Kolskegg Xothan Provisional Lord Governor of New Jersey (Southern Territories) of the Eastern Coast of the Northern Hemisphere of the New American Continent - Surface Dweller.