Club look at the possibility of a 25,000-seater stadium

Leyton Orient want to move into the Olympic Stadium after the 2012 Games.

The club have submitted an application to the Football League for permission for a move to the stadium, which is just 1.5 miles from their current home.

Following the Olympic Park Legacy Company’s decision last week to withdraw their offer to West Ham United and the London Borough of Newham to own the Olympic Stadium post-2012, the bidding process will reopen for a tenant to be found.

The Olympic Stadium is located so close to Brisbane Road and Orient remain concerned at the potential impact of West Ham United moving so close.

Chairman Barry Hearn said: “We are asking for a 25,000-seat stadium and we want to see if we can get around the athletics track. It has to stay, we know that. But can we build up, if not down, and see if it’s possible to get it covered while we play?

“If it isn’t possible, it isn’t – and we wouldn’t move in with a running track between the pitch and the crowd. We have submitted an application for permission to move to the Football League, and that permission is something that West Ham don’t yet have.

“It was the Premier League who gave them the green light to move in their original plan, but they are no longer members of the Premier League.

“The rules are that the Football League would not sanction a club moving closer to another club if it affects the business of that other club, and there’s no doubt that West Ham moving there would affect us.

“West Ham can’t just assume that they will be in the Premier League by then. How, therefore, can the Olympic Park Legacy Company, whose job it is to decide who takes over the stadium, allow West Ham to remain in the bidding process?

“We want them thrown out because they don’t have permission from the relevant authority – the Football League.”