Humble Leyton Orient eyeing Olympic stadium switch

The long-term future of London's 2012 Olympics stadium took a novel twist yesterday when third division football club Leyton Orient emerged as candidates to move in after the Games.

With London 2012 organisers sticking to their promise that the showpiece stadium would be retained as a track and field facility after the Games, Orient's chairman Barry Hearn said his club would be the most suitable occupants.

Plans are for the 80,000-seater stadium to be re-configured to a 25,000-seater with the running track retained, a scenario that would not suit the likes of Premier League West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur.

"Our current ground is a mile away from the site of the Olympic stadium," Hearn told Reuters yesterday.

"No question, we are the most suitable football club in London to play there, as no Premier League club would go in there with a 25,000-capacity.

"It's pure conjecture at the moment and ultimately it's going to be a matter for government, but we would be silly not to consider it as a long-term possibility.

"If they are going to insist on it being an athletics stadium and they also want a football club in there, then we are the only club suitable."

Hearn, who made his name as a boxing and snooker promoter, believes a smaller club taking over the Olympic stadium would fit well with London 2012 organisers' promise of a lasting legacy to one of London's poorer suburbs.

"We aren't known for winning too much, but we are very well known for our community programmes," he said.

Asked whether the £100 million price tag that London organising committee chief Sebastian Coe said it would cost for a club to take over the stadium, Hearn said: "If the legacy is going to be real, you can't then put a price tag on it."

The humble east London club, named after the Orient Shipping Line whose vessels used the local docks in 1888, have spent only one season of their existence in the English top flight, in 1962-63, but are the closest club to the Olympic site.

They moved into their current home in 1937 but the current capacity is just 8,000 as redevelopment continues.

The O's are propping up the third division having been promoted last year from the bottom tier where they had resided for more than 10 years.