ORIENT: Barry Hearn on efforts to sell club (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

ORIENT: Barry Hearn on efforts to sell club

12:39pm Wednesday 31st March 2010 in

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The Orient chairman reveals the progress of his quest to find a buyer for the League One club.

LEYTON ORIENT is still the football club that nobody wants to own.

The absence of a serious buyer was confirmed by chairman Barry Hearn.

The want-away Os supremo is desperate to sell up and devote more time to his other business interests, like TV firm Matchroom Sports.

But he cannot find a creditable buyer, he told Guardian Series Sport.

"I'm a busy person and I have an enormous amount of things to do, and frankly I don't have the time for Orient.

"But I have to make the time because I accepted the responsibilty.

"But I would love not to have the responsibilty".

So just what does Hearn look for in a candidate?

“I have to find someone who shares my passion and wants to make an investment in the future of Leyton Orient” he said.

“They’re not easy to find”.

According to Hearn, the problem is the alternate reality in which the football business operates.

It makes a small club like Orient an unattractive proposition.

Cash reserves of £1.5m and a debt-free balance sheet do not shake that view.

Hearn said: “Everyone knows that if they want a debt free club playing reasonable football in League One, it’s available”

”It’s hard, because today you can buy clubs for next to nothing, as they’re bust or have huge debt.”

“If I sell, I want to sell to someone with more ambition or money”.

“There’s no queue outside my door”.

The club could become a steadily less attractive proposition if losses continue to mount and the reserves dwindle.

Last year, the deficit rose £321,118. to hit £1,077,687.

There is also the looming matter of rent which the club will owe to Hearn, who holds the lease on the ground, at Brisbane Road.

“The advantage of us is that we don’t have any debt at all, but the downside is our support levels are so low” he said.

“When Crystal Palace get into problems they are capable of getting 25,000 in their ground.

“Southend delayed on their wages, but they can get 6,000 people in on a Tuesday night.

“We’re surviving on crowds of 4,000. It’s not enough to sustain us”.

“Prospective purchasers want to feel they have the chance to be bigger.

“The question mark with Leyton Orient is, is that likely? And it’s probably a ‘no’”.

But there will be no loosening of the purse-strings by the man who thinks the club’s interests are served best by his regime of fiscal prudence.

“Some people want me to drive in my personal wealth, but that’s not going to happen, because I’m not an idiot” said Hearn.

“We try our best and at the end of the day, the vast majority of Orient fans understand the real position, and love the club.

“The big thing they want is for the club to survive. They’re the people who drive me forwards”.

“You’re stuck with me”.

For more from Os chairman Barry Hearn, see Your local Guardian this week.