Ground shares have never been popular with football fans and have usually happend as an emergency measure when clubs have been deprived of their normal home, e.g., Brighton and the Goldstone Ground, Charlton and The Valley.
Ground shares have never been popular with football fans and have usually happend as an emergency measure when clubs have been deprived of their normal home, e.g., Brighton and the Goldstone Ground, Charlton and The Valley.
However, now Leyton Orient owner Barry Hearn says that the club should consider moving into the Olympic Stadium with West Ham as ‘the lesser of two evils’. He argues that it would not be a ground share, just another tenant (although arguably a secondary one).
The proposal has attracted considerable criticism from O’s fans. The Fans Trust considers that the stadium is simply unsuitable for football because of the presence of a running track and are not impressed by arguments that retractable seats could be provided to bring fans closer to the players.
Fans also find the argument that only five or six per cent of fans live in the club’s heartland unconvincing. In the case of most clubs, certainly in London, fans have dispersed far and wide but that does not mean that they want the club to leave its historical geograhical roots. Indeed, it is a way for fans to keep in touch with those roots.
Some fans have ungenerously suggested that Mr Hearn might derive a commercial advantage from such a move, given that he holds the freehold of Brisbane Road. However, Leyton Orient have consistently maintained that the proposed move of West Ham to the Olympic Stadium creates a dilemma for them.