Orient chief executive Matt Porter admits dwindling attendances are a concern and insists clubs have to make sure they offer supporters an attractive matchday experience.

The O’s attendances are down this season, along with the majority of Football League clubs, with their recent home game against Hartlepool United which clashed with an England World Cup qualifier, watched by only 2,664 fans.

“Porter accepts the financial situation has affected turnouts up and down the country but believes clubs can do more to entice supporters to games.

Porter told the Footballers’ Football Show: “Around 75 per cent of Football League clubs’ crowds are down this year. I think only 18 clubs are up and half of those are the promoted teams from last year so the overall picture at the moment isn’t one of turnstiles clicking as regularly as we all may like.

“It is a worry. It’s something we can put down to the poor financial state of the country generally but also we have to make sure we’re conscious enough of delivering a good product to our fans every week, whether that’s winning football, entertaining football, decent stadium environments, affordable football.

“We can’t take our eyes off the ball and just assume people aren’t coming because there’s a recession. We have to make sure the rest of our offering is up to scratch.”

Orient are locked in a battle to win the right to play at the Olympic Stadium. The O’s want to share the venue with West Ham United and the League One club’s chief executive insists the move is a matter of survival for them.

Porter said: “There is a long drawn out process. It’s still ongoing and we’re still at the table. We’re still in there fighting. We’re fighting for our survival. We see the possible presence of a Premiership club within a couple of miles of our doorstep as a threat to our long-term future so we’re battling to ensure that people are hearing our voice and ready to help Leyton Orient survive going forward.”

He continued: “The key thing for us obviously is we’d have to grow our fanbase in order to be realistic within the Olympic Stadium. We’ve got ways in which we think we can do that. We can rebrand the club. We can use the community programme within the local area to give away tickets.

“We can make tickets free for Under-18s across London. We can give tickets away to serving members of the armed forces. We can incentivise new members of the Olympic Park to come and watch us and try to generate a new club atmosphere.

“The feel of any club that moves to a new stadium is one of positivity. You look at Rotherham who moved this year and have gone from 3,500 crowds to 8,500 just like that over night.

“If we can move the club up into the Championship there is no reason why we can’t change the whole face of Orient.”

Chairman Barry Hearn has admitted a name change to London Orient would be a consideration if they were given the go-ahead to move to the Olympic Stadium.

But Porter does not think this should be a concern to supporters and he maintained their loyal fanbase would be a major consideration ahead of any changes.

Porter said: “We were told a while ago that London is the only capital city in Europe without a football club named after it so what a great opportunity.

“The key thing for us would be to ensure we remember the loyal fanbase that we’ve got at the moment and not just discard them. If we were to move to the Olympic Stadium obviously we would pay special consideration to their long-term support. People talk about the name change but our brand is Orient.

“Everybody knows us as Orient, whether the first name is Leyton, Clapton, London or if there’s no first word as there wasn’t at one point.

That’s the key thing – to remember the club’s history but also to drive it forward and take it to the next level and this is a good opportunity for us to do so.”