Leyton Orient have signed a Development Performance Agreement (DPA) with the London Borough of Waltham Forest, moving the club's proposed new stadium a step closer to a formal planning application.
The agreement sets up a framework in which the club's project team can work up its proposals while council officers feed back on planning matters and community benefits. It is not planning permission, and a number of significant details are still to be settled.
Architects Populous have been appointed to design the proposed stadium and the wider multi-sport campus around it. The venue is intended to host Orient's men's and women's teams alongside a London American football franchise, with retail, hospitality and leisure space attached to create a year-round destination rather than a ground used on matchdays alone.
Majority shareholder David Gandler said the scheme could "support thousands of jobs and provide training, apprenticeship and placement opportunities for young people."
The club's current home, Brisbane Road, opened in 1937 and holds 9,271. Its position in a residential street places hard limits on expansion, with any enlargement there thought to cap out at around 13,000 seats - a ceiling that sits awkwardly against a club stating Championship ambitions.
The capacity of the proposed replacement has not been disclosed. Orient are aiming to complete the development by 2031, the club's 150th anniversary. Between the DPA and that date sit the questions the agreement exists to test: what gets built, how big, and what the borough gets in return.
