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There’s something unmistakably nostalgic about a matchday at Leyton Orient. In East London, this club has long been a cornerstone for its community. But in recent times, some fans feel that sense of belonging has been tested, with a new commercial approach being pushed by the owners.

Leyton Orient fans are now paying up to £37 per match—a price that places them among the most expensive in League One. While the club has had a mixed start to their 24/25 campaign, performances have been promising. Off the pitch, concerns are growing about what rising ticket prices might mean for the future.

“I understand prices are going to go up given the circumstances at the minute, but £32-35 is a bit much for League One,” Rob, a season ticket holder, lamented, standing outside the Gaughan Group Stadium before Tuesday nights fixture against Peterborough.

For many, it’s not just the price itself that’s an issue, but the new categorisation of games—each fixture now labeled as AA, A, or B, determining how much fans will have to shell out. For this Saturday’s upcoming game against Wrexham classified as an AA fixture, non-concession adult tickets range between £33-37, leaving some to question the fairness of it all.

It is worth noting – Saturdays fixture is a sell out at Brisbane Road.

Darren, a devoted fan since 1986, makes a long trip from Bedfordshire to attend games. The categorisation, he said, feels like another symptom of a larger issue filtering into the lower leagues: “I know it’s been in the Premiership for some time, but now it’s coming down into the lower leagues it feels a little bit different and wrong… Dealing with the cost of living crisis and things like that as well.”

This “Premier League” approach to pricing has left some fans wondering if their club is moving away from its roots that have long been grounded in being accessible and community driven.

Tom Davies, the vice chair of Leyton Orient Fans’ Trust (LOFT), described a growing unease among supporters: “The concern as an Orient fan is we’ve traditionally sold ourselves as a club that’s accessible and cheaper than West Ham, Spurs, and Arsenal, which are obviously the clubs surrounding us. If we start to go down the same path that Premier League clubs are going down, we’re kind of losing some of our goodwill and accessibility.”

The club’s new strategy, for better or worse, is all about commercialisation, a trend sweeping through football, and one that some in the fanbase are embracing.

“There are younger fans, who’ve known nothing but success over the past few years, who hear these ideas advanced about the likes of a new stadium and Championship football, and ‘we can do what Brentford did,’” said Aynsley Taylor, editor of the fan-produced magazine Orientear. “They think, yeah, I want that, I want more of that.”

Yet for some long-standing fans, the changes can feel disheartening, as the club moves from the close-knit atmosphere of yesteryears to something more corporate. “The club is changing and is going through a transition,” he added, “and it is possible that it will become a less intimate, personal, communitarian sort of place.”

The move towards higher ticket prices doesn’t affect season ticket holders quite so much, but for casual supporters in the community there are concerns about affordability. The areas of Leyton and Walthamstow have changed significantly in recent years, experiencing gentrification, but Davies notes that there are still many who find it hard to afford these new prices.

He said: “I know Leyton and Walthamstow have gentrified a bit in recent years, but they’re still quite poor areas in lots of pockets and the prices make Orient less of an accessible community attraction.”

As prices go up, there’s a fear that attendances could start to drop. Tuesday night’s game against Peterborough saw a turnout of 6,416 – below the season average of 7,419. For Taylor, this is cause for concern. “By recent standards, that’s one of the lowest of the past two or three years, and I think that’s setting a few alarm bells ringing at the club, and it should do.”

While the board’s direction isn’t a mistake, it’s a reflection of a broader industry shift. Clubs, especially those eyeing higher leagues and financial sustainability, are increasingly pushing toward commercialisation. 

Taylor points towards this: “It’s an industry-wide issue at the moment. The regulator is coming, and we don’t know exactly how long, but it is coming. And clubs are starting to realise that there is going to be change.”

He adds that there’s a rush among football club chairmen to secure as much financial gain as possible before the regulator comes in: “My supposition is that there’s a bit of a mad trolley dash going on right now before that happens.”

For Davies, much of this comes down to the influence of U.S.-style business models, which he believes are influencing the current philosophy at Leyton Orient under chairman Nigel Travis. “The owner is a local lad but his business career has been based in the U.S. and I think what we’ve seen with U.S. owners is they think football is undervalued and have a quite rapacious view of it all.”

Davies added, “Travis comes a little bit from that culture where they think if some people are prepared to spend money, then we’re going to charge it.”

Taylor reflected that this relentless commercial focus is visible across the whole club “Everything about the club this season has been in your face. Sell, sell, sell. Marketing. Sell this, sponsor that. And it’s just relentless, it’s tiring.”

But despite the frustrations, Leyton Orient remains a beloved institution. And as Taylor reflected on what drew him to the club in the first place, he captures what many fans fear might slip away: “It triggered something deep within my subconscious about what football is about. It’s not about big, sterile, impersonal, massive crowds and everybody’s just a commodity and it’s expensive and glamorous and TV and all the rest of it. In a part of London which has gone through a lot of change over the past few decades, it was like this one thing which provided stability in a very transient area.”

Leyton Orient face a delicate balancing act – the pursuit of financial gains in a competitive football league at the potential cost of losing what sets it apart from its larger, wealthier neighbours.

Whilst many fans are not hugely impacted by high ticket prices, especially the loyal season ticket holders who in fairness do get good value – many of the fans I spoke to feel that the issue is more symbolic of wider changes at the club and a changing approach to the pursuit of progress in difficult circumstances. The question remains, how much further can they push before the connection is lost?