The Diplomats Once Planned a Stadium of Their Own

A long forgotten piece of Washington soccer lore is the fact that the team once seriously toyed with the idea of their own suburban stadium. Already playing in Fairfax, Virginia, and inspired by the posh ambiance of the Capital Centre, which had opened two years earlier, the team looked to upgrade
the facilities at W.T. Woodson High School, aka Fairfax Stadium. On April 13, 1976, a press conference was held announcing the project which featured an architectural vision of the new complex. John Carbray, who was hired as General Manager at the end of the 1976 season and made many major upgrades to the teams image and facilities, arranged for the team to permanently move to RFK Stadium in the spring of 1977, thus putting an end to the idea of a pitch in suburbia.

From left, John Kerr, Tom McConville and Dennis Viollet review plans for new stadium.