Manly on course to self-destruct as leagues club plan falls apart

[Berkeley_Eagle]

Chairman at Manly 'must be independent'

 

Stuart Honeysett | February 17, 2009
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25064213-5012431,00.html
MANLY co-owner Max Delmege claimed yesterday to have paid any outstanding arrears owing to the club before calling for an independent chairman to be appointed to the Sea Eagles' board to end the bitter in-fighting.

As co-owner and chairman Scott Penn and chief executive Grant Mayer prepare to head to England today for the World Club Challenge, Delmege described the row over unpaid monies as a "power play".

Penn last week threatened legal action and even offered to buy Delmege out after claiming the millionaire property developer owed the club an estimated $400,000.

Delmege took offence at the club's dirty laundry being aired in public, given he has pumped more than $12million into the club since 2004 and is largely credited with saving the Sea Eagles from certain extinction.

"As we speak any arrears which were an oversight have been rectified," Delmege said.

"Whoever is instigating this will have to think of something else. I'm for Manly, I'm for the supporters of Manly and I'm not for a power play.

"Manly Warringah rugby league football club is bigger and stronger than the Delmege or the Penn family."

Delmege and the Penn family, who control 38 and 42 per cent respectively of the football club, have been at loggerheads on several fronts, including the collapse of a joint proposal to redevelop the ailing Manly-Warringah League club at Brookvale.

The rift has split the club in two. Delmege enjoys a 5-2 majority on the board while Mayer and club powerbroker Peter

Peters are in the Penn family's corner.

Delmege is keen for former NSW Labor Party senator and present director, Kerry Sibraa, to become chairman but his impartiality would be questioned by the Penn camp.

Sibraa voted with the Delmege faction last week to deny Mayer a contract extension until the end of 2011.

 

[Matabele]

[quote author=Matabele link=topic=179102.msg207113#msg207113 date=1234760532]
[quote author=Corso_Pete link=topic=179102.msg207110#msg207110 date=1234760261]


In the red corner we have the young and energetic Penn's' and their trusty sidekick Grant Mayer.  They love Manly, yes they do but they also love business and the challenge of turning a small dollar into a bigger dollar and eventually selling out to the highest bidder. Could that ever at happen at Brookvale whilst ever old heads, swayed by 60 years of history of playing at the hallowed but quickly dying Brookvale Oval happen, well it can't because the FC hold 1 very important vote that cannot be bought, but if the company that holds the licence to an NRL team went bankrupt what value is the one share held by the FC?

  Is that anything more than speculation Pete?  Because I would suggest if the Penns were to invest $2.5m+ to make a return then there were far better options available to them than buying into a rugby league club. 
[/quote]

It is nothing more than speculation on my behalf, other than the money issue I simply haven't read of or can think of anything that is more viable.
[/quote]  I would suggest it is nothing more sinister than a business considering people like Deans etc something of a millstone to progress (at Brookvale).