As always, he’s stoic, but it’s been a tough time lately for Sydney shock jock Ray Hadley.
The People’s Champion is in court with Richard Palmer, a colleague he allegedly bullied, he’s suing his former accountants for allegedly giving him bad financial advice and he’s offloading his salubrious weekender at Toowoon Bay on the NSW Central Coast at auction next month. But that’s just the start of it.
It turns out Hadley’s also flogging his beachfront pad at Main Beach on the Gold Coast.
The auction is on Thursday morning and agents Ray White say Hadley’s an “extremely keen seller”.
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The top rating morning host bought the sub-penthouse in 2006 for $1.6 million. So why the firesale? On top of about $2 million in mortgage debt, Hadley’s company Raytrack Sporting Services has been slapped by the ATO with a whopping tax debt of almost $6 million, which he’s got two years to come good on.
That sounds to us like a pretty good reason to sue your bean counters.
Even on Hadley’s circa $2.5 million salary, it’s gonna be a steep repayment plan. And that’s before you factor in his legal costs and the hefty settlement he may have to pay Palmer.
We hear he’s even gone cap in hand to Macquarie Radio’s management to help him navigate his lean spell – the same mob he walked out on in February in the aftermath of the Palmer incident.
You can guess how that conversation went... Let’s just hope the former mad punter – and his pal Duck Creek – isn’t tempted back to the race track.
... and ticks off a few mates
And as if his property and money headaches weren’t enough to worry about, 2GB host Ray Hadley unwittingly blew up his own superiors and shareholders at Macquarie Radio last week.
In one of his inimitable on-air sprays on Friday, Hadley went postal at NRL boss David Smith and the rugby league’s relationship with cheap ticket vendor leagueunlimited27, which was selling tickets to the Manly v Cronulla semi-final for $22 compared to $70 on Ticketek and NRL.com.au.
“Based on the sort of figures you’ve been getting over the past three weeks ... get your marketing people out the front of Driver Ave with a prawn net and drag people in as they are walking past.
That might be just as effective.” Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, where Hadley serves as honorary editor-in-chief, loyally followed up the yarn in its Saturday edition.
But guess who’s a founder and director of leagueunlimited27? None other than Jack Singleton, Macquarie Radio board member and son of majority shareholder John Singleton.
The faux pas has been the talk of media industry circles all weekend. And according to an NRL spokesman, the whole kerfuffle was over less than 400 seats. Oh dear.
