OK. I think I have this figured, but I don't know it all.
St George may be the first footy club to have a Leagues club. They started in 1953.
Manly Leagues started trading on 9/4/57.
Parra had one more than two years later on 22/8/59.
Our Leagues club was our original cash cow.
It paid for a lot and it used to be profitable.
The mistake in the 80s was not upgrading the club fast enough to what some of the competitors have.
By the 90s, Murdoch and Packer had a tussle over the rights to the game and Arko/ARL, loyal as ever, had a handshake agreement with Packer, refused to break the contract. Because of the Packer and Murdoch egos, they almost destroyed Manly through Super League. However, Sarah O'Hare did campaign to help bring us back in 2002 and she's now part of the Murdoch clan.
What Hamster said is pretty spot on to what I thought. We helped the ARL to stay afloat by digging into our own pockets. Money went out and never came back. Those clubs like Parra and their fans are never grateful enough, considering we gifted them Dymock, McCracken, Jason Smith and Dean Pay in '96 (before then, they failed to make the finals for ten years). Still they hate us for helping them. Fittler went to Easts because it would have imbalanced the competition if he were to wear the maroon and white).
When the '99 season came to an end, we had the dilemma of going alone or merge with Norths or let Norths die on their own. Not many had the guts to go alone, so they tried the merger. Fatty was against the merger and he was proven right because by the time the merger died, we were back in the same position back in 1999! The merger was the saddest time for Manly.
You can see the money disappearing when the Leagues Club had to sell the huge land (used as a car park) on Victor Street, what is now the Travelodge.
Then came Max Delmege. He claimed to have gifted Manly $15 million over the time he was a majority owner. I believe Max took over the ex-Football Club office land on Victor Street (that's why it was relocated to Narrabeen), and may be still under Max's control? The Penn family came in because money was running dry. Football clubs are expensive to run. You don't own one to make a profit from it, but for the love of it.
Max also had run ins with De$ over player retention too. Just on media reports and conjectures, - Max wanted to keep Monaghan when De$ wanted to punt him, resulting in ugly news reports and fans uproar and Monaghan's contract was extended. Max also wanted to keep the Beaver because Beaver was popular and a BIG drawcard for fans. De$ saw differently, resulting in further disagreements and Beaver was forced out of Manly.
Around 2008, I suspect the Penns asked Delmege for money to have his name on the jersey for 2009. I guess Max thought he should have been given more allowances as he had spent a bit over the years. We should be grateful to Max for saving us in 2003. In 2009, entered Quantum to buy into the ownership and as the main sponsor on the jersey for a couple of years.
The Leagues club went into further debt and there were accusations of dodgy loans and a previous director is now banned from entering the club. If you were at the Leagues Club AGM a couple of years back, you would have seen the ugly dispute about this. Who is right, I don't know.
Correct me if I'm wrong = Due to the inability of the Leagues Club to stay afloat due to loans from the bank (NAB?), it was sold off to the Penns. The Penns decided to lease the lower premises back to the Leagues Club and the top floor to the gym. How much does Manly Leagues own now? Probably zilch. Very sad.
Again, thanks to the Penns for pouring money in because without them, we would be in trouble again. I believe the Penns like to have tight controls so that they can manage their businesses their way. My opinion: The one wrong decision is that we should have expanded the Leagues Club poker machines, not shrink it. I'm all for people gambling to help us stay financially healthy