The Washington Diplomats were an American soccer club based in Washington, D.C.. Throughout their existence, the club played their home games at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. Founded as an expansion franchise in 1971, the Diplomats competed in the now-defunct North American Soccer League, then the top-tier soccer league of the American soccer pyramid.
Plagued with mediocrity in their first few seasons of existence, the Diplomats did not qualify for the playoffs until 1976, their fifth year in the league. Immediately, the Diplomats were knocked out by the New York Cosmos in the first round. The following season, the club played their home matches in Northern Virginia at W.T. Woodson High School, before going back to RFK Stadium. During the next three seasons, the Diplomats achieved more regular season success and reached the postseason every year from 1977 until 1980. Consequently, the club experienced a spike in average attendance, nearing 20,000 fans a game by the 1980 season.
Following the end of the 1980 season, the original Diplomats club folded when then owner, the Madison Square Garden Corp., had accumulated losses of $6 million and team president Steve Danzansky could not gather enough money to keep the team alive. However, that same season the Detroit Express NASL franchise relocated to the Washington metropolitan area, renaming themselves the "Diplomats" due to perceived familiarity of the moniker to the area. However, a regression of attendance and a lack of field success spelt the death knell of the franchise, and the Diplomats folded following the 1981 season.
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