Leyton Orient will be forced to move from the stadium it has called home for 75 years if it loses the judicial review into the bidding process for the Olympic Stadium, according to chairman Barry Hearn.
The Matchroom Stadium, on Brisbane Road, has been home to Leyton Orient since 1937. It has survived the Blitz, the Iron Curtain and the financial crisis. But now, it could be “crushed” by Sam Allardyce’s premiership side.
The final decision on West Ham getting the 60,000 Olympic Stadium was announced this Friday. Orient fans warn that when the Hammers move up the road from the O’s, their potential fanbase will flood to the premiership side, leaving them no option but to relocate.
At a London press conference on Wednesday, Hearn said that when West Ham moves to the Olympic Park it “would put me out of business”.
The judicial review, announced by Hearn two weeks ago, argues that the O’s bid to ground share with Premier League club West Ham United was wrongly dismissed. Hearn suggested that there was a breach in process made by the London Legacy Development Corporation, when it dismissed the club’s bid for the £429m stadium.
Hearn said: “If I lose the judicial review, I have got to walk [away]. That’s it. It must stop – I can’t do anything else.
“I have fought a really good fight. I’ve cost people a lot of money and spent a lot of money myself but I don’t regret it because I think I am in the right.
“If I stay [at Brisbane Road], I will get crushed. And I am not prepared to see a club that is 130 years old, that reaches more kids than another other in the country through the community schemes, get crushed.”
Hearn admitted that he does not have a specific location in mind for a new site for Leyton Orient.
He said: “Harlow has been mooted, Romford has been mooted, off the A13 down by the Docks… Barking way.”
Orient, who had no previous plans to relocate from the Matchroom Stadium, applied to groundshare in the Olympic Stadium with West Ham. Hearne said that his side’s proposal was wrongly dismissed by the LLDC and represents another failure of Olympic Legacy.
He said: “This is a long running process. But, until they get it right, I’m really not going to sit down and let someone steamroller all over my little football club.
“If West Ham moves into the stadium, with a double capacity, 60,000 crowd, and offers cheap seats, I’m going to be put out of business. After 130 years, I’d like Leyton Orient to stay in business.
“We’re suggesting a ground share with West Ham, but we don’t seem to be getting much support from the LLDC, or from Boris Johnson, or from anyone who purports to care about the community.
“So we’re fighting our corner, as we would always do from the East End. We may lose, or we may win, but we’re not rolling over.”
Mat Roper, Editor of the Pandemonium Fanzine and Orient supporter for 34 years, said: “The Olympic Stadium saga has been nothing short of a farce. Since day one there was obviously no long-term plan for the stadium post Olympics, although many forget that Orient were the first and only club who were in talks with the authorities long before the stadium was built about potential ownership.
“Will we have to move? A very big question this one of which the O’s support seems somewhat split. Personally, I would love to stay at Brisbane Road. We have been there for over 75 years and I have been attending football there since my first ever visit in 1978.
“It would be soul destroying if the move was to somewhere such as Harlow. I would prefer to stay as close to our current ground as possible but obviously any move just up the road from Leyton would be exactly the same as staying put.”
Luke Gregory, 25, who has supported the O’s for 20 years, said: “We can’t attract new fans if a premiership club is offering discount tickets on our doorstep.
“Put it this way – do you shop at your local grocers or go to Tesco? That’s the reality of this move.
“I wouldn’t want to, but we’ll have to.”
