Tue Aug 27, 2013 10:21 am
Who is right ?
Orient say it will kill the club due to locals using cheap tickets to watch premier league football instead of them !
West ham say they can fill the stadium on there own and the extra revenue it will bring to the area will be a huge boost for local buisness like pubs and shops .
Does it give west ham a unfair advantage over teams like us being gifted a huge new stadium ?
#StandUpForTheOrient
Background
Leyton Orient is London's second oldest professional football club, having been established in 1881 and admitted to the football league in 1905. It has a core following of loyal supporters based both locally and further afield, and has an excellent reputation as a well-run Club who are financially secure and a strong emphasis on youth development.
The Club is at the heart of a thriving East London community with sporting, educational and health projects run from the club grounds and by its staff reaching tens of thousands of people each year. It has close links, and shares facilities with the SCORE project which works with children and schools from the local community.
Leyton Orient's future is under threat from a decision, not of its own making, regarding the Olympic Stadium; the decision made by the London Legacy Development Corporation and Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, in March 2013 to gift the stadium to West Ham United FC could see Orient fold due to the competition being just a mile away. West Ham will be given £40m from Newham Council. Newham Council serves one of the most deprived areas in the UK and whilst they cut funding from public services and public sector wages, they see fit to gift a private enterprise a large percentage of their budget, without consultation of the local tax payers. The Department of Culture, Media and Support will provide £38.7m whilst another £25m will come from the Department of Community and Local Government. This amounts to state funding for one football team to have the monopoly on a national stadium.
West Ham will move on to Orient’s doorstep, within three miles. Currently West Ham cannot fill the Boleyn Ground without resorting to cheap tickets, so with an additional 19,000 added to their capacity it is a concern that WHUFC will flood the local area with cheap rate tickets; their local area is of course Orient’s catchment area.
The owners, board, staff and fans of Orient are united in their concern that this move could signal the end of Leyton Orient Football Club.
In addition to this, there are the wider implications of the trade local to WHUFC and Green Street being greatly affected by having their football trade removed without consultation and strong indications are that the legendary Anne Boleyn Pub and the old people’s clubs housed within the WHUFC social clubs will not survive. This move is going to affect two communities, it will change the faces of Leyton and Upton Park forever.
Mission Statement
#StandUpForTheOrient is calling on all football fans, football clubs, and Trusts and the general public to pull together to show their support for the O's as they strive to have their voice heard at this critical time in an effort to preserve the life of Leyton Orient.
We want to stand together to show that taking money from the public purse to fund a private enterprise to move to the Olympic stadium is not in the best interest of the public or for Leyton Orient Football Club.
We cannot make political changes but we can sign up to #StandUpForTheOrient to register our disagreement at the decision made by the LLDC, Boris Johnson and Newham Council have made. We intend to raise awareness through social media of the situation Orient face themselves in and start an online campaign to bring this issue to the coalition party, with the aim of getting this debated in Parliament.
Your Help & Support
Please sign up to #SUFTO and publicise this to any of your friends who have an interest in football, community life and the future of football in East London.
In order to get this debated in the House of Commons we need 100,000 people to register on the petition so it is a huge task, please publicise to anyone who would care!
Thank you
Tue Aug 27, 2013 11:16 am
I was watching football league show this morning and they were interviewing leyton orient chairman and he was on about west ham moving there and he also said why dont they share it like other teams around Europe do. He also mentioned that tax payers are paying 600m for the Olympic stadium
Tue Aug 27, 2013 12:56 pm
TheRedBluebird wrote:I was watching football league show this morning and they were interviewing leyton orient chairman and he was on about west ham moving there and he also said why dont they share it like other teams around Europe do. He also mentioned that tax payers are paying 600m for the Olympic stadium
Exactly what I was thinking while reading. Surely a ground share option would suit both clubs. Although still not ideal for orient surely a better option for them