Orient’s owner seeking more than £2 billion to fund his campus vision

The London Real Estate Forum (LREF) has been running for over a decade and describes itself as “London’s Premier Real Estate Event”. His presence at the event was the first indication that Gandler has paid to enter a partnership with Opportunity London, a public-private organisation promoting projects in the world’s greatest city to a global audience of investors. Leyton Orient’s subsequent addition to Opportunity London’s website confirms this – placing the Club amongst a range of far larger businesses seeking funding, and putting it in sight of heavyweight investors including the real estate arm of the Qatari sovereign wealth fund.

Although Gandler’s pitch did not feature in the LREF event brochure, space was found for him in the programme to speak for a little over 5 minutes. He was given the opportunity to address a room full of potential investors in a rather more upscale “Dragons Den” style setting, part of a longer session that was invitation-only, with an audience containing representatives from sovereign wealth funds, private equity, pension funds and other major international investors. But as luck would have it, an Orient fan and ‘Ear reader happened to be present in the room to report back to us what was said.

Our source, who works in London’s built environment sector, told us Gandler was joined onstage by another American live events investor to explain why both thought London remained an attractive destination for investment into the “experience economy”. Few details about Orient, the proposed stadium, or the wider campus were offered, with Gandler’s pitch concentrating on technology, and to a lesser extent on potential socio-economic value creation, rehearsing the approach he has been using to try and win over Waltham Forest’s Green councillors.

Gandler suggested that between £2.2bn and £2.4bn would be required to complete the whole project, of which the stadium is just one component. He cited LA’s SoFi Stadium as his inspiration  – currently the most expensive stadium in the world, costing nearly $7bn at today’s prices. Gandler said the project would deploy cutting-edge technology to create a venue that was unique within the UK.

The amount of investment Gandler is looking for would make this the most expensive stadium-related project in British history, although the current absence of detail makes it hard to determine how much of the cost would be associated with the stadium itself. The total amount is on a par with what Jim Ratcliffe has been seeking to build Manchester United’s proposed “New Trafford”.

Gandler’s biog for the event described him as “an entrepreneur, investor, and executive in technology, media, and sports”, acknowledging his position on the board of controversial pro-Trump broadcaster Newsmax, and silent on the reasons for his departure from FuboTV.

The subsequent announcement that Orient has entered into the DPA with the Council left many fans bewildered and nonplussed, though coming so soon after Gandler’s investment pitch it is unlikely that Orient fans were the main intended audience for it [Ed: some might say they’re not the main intended audience for whatever he intends to build, either]. Our in-house Planning Correspondent, who has extensive experience in development and infrastructure, was able to help decode the press release:

“A Development Performance Agreement (DPA) - more commonly known beyond Waltham Forest as a Planning Performance Agreement – is something a developer (in this case, Leyton Orient) pays the local authority for to maximise the plausibility of their eventual planning application.

The money is to fund the time and effort required of the Council’s planning officers to assess and feedback on early iterations of the developer’s plans, guaranteeing a series of meetings with council officers to avoid unexpected agreements further down the line. This is standard practice, and the cost varies - but it will be relatively modest compared to the overall operating costs of a League One football club”

Gandler has since given an interview to Nick Godwin of BBC London Sport, in which he admitted that this DPA was unusual because it was signed before any development land was secured. He went to describe Orient as a “blank canvas” and suggested that East London is about to enter a period of “hyper growth” before claiming that the project would be “important for the whole of the UK”.

So, as things stand, there is still no funding secured, approval granted, or indeed much detail around Gandler’s stadium plans or those for the wider campus – although to persuade Waltham Forest’s Green council it is likely he will need to expedite large amounts of housing and infrastructure too. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s seeking such a phenomenal amount of money to unlock his "grand projet" – although we have to wonder whether Orient is a large enough vehicle to carry the weight of all this.

Following the announcement of the DPA, Orient fans remained largely unmoved, with comments including “those who shout the loudest always have the least to say”, “Orient will become a passenger not a priority. Enjoy it while we still can. Sad times”, and “I’d be happy for us to stay where we are… we can’t fill our present stadium can we?”. Our own analysis from earlier this year shows that the capacities Gandler has previously discussed for the stadium seem wholly unsuited to the Club’s needs, and may indeed pose a threat to its future wellbeing and success.