Major Arena Soccer League team coming to Allentown’s PPL Center in 2026

EASTON, Pa. — The owners of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms announced Thursday they are bringing a Major Arena Soccer League team to the PPL Center in Allentown, with play expected to begin in December 2026.

Jim and Rob Brooks, co-owners of the Phantoms, made the announcement at a press conference at the arena. The new team will compete at the Premier Level — the MASL’s top tier — and will play 12 home games as part of a 24-game regular season.

“Rob and I are excited to announce that we have purchased a team and we’ll be moving it here, opening here, in the Lehigh Valley, this coming fall,” Jim Brooks said.

The addition marks the first new professional sports team to share the PPL Center with the Phantoms, the Lehigh Valley’s American Hockey League affiliate that has called the arena home since it opened in 2014.

The MASL is the highest level of arena soccer in North America. Formed in 2014 through a merger of the Professional Arena Soccer League and the Major Indoor Soccer League, the league currently fields eight teams spanning coast to coast, with expansion planned for Sacramento in 2027, according to league officials.

“PPL Center is set to expand its sports offerings by introducing the speed, skill, and high-scoring excitement of indoor soccer,” the MASL said in a statement. “The new team will enter the major league at the Premier Level, the highest level the MASL has to offer.”

Starting Thursday, residents can place season ticket deposits via a new page jointly released by the MASL and the PPL Center. The site displays a “Lehigh Valley Kicks Off In…” timer counting down to December 2026.

The Brooks brothers said the decision came after a long process of evaluating potential sports — including basketball, indoor football and indoor lacrosse — before settling on indoor soccer as the right fit for the PPL Center and the Lehigh Valley community.

“How can we find a second tenant that can complement the Phantoms and help the Lehigh Valley community?” Jim Brooks said. “And it’s not an easy task, because we want to find the right fit for PPL Center, and for the Lehigh Valley.”

He said a combination of game quality, fan atmosphere, market stability and the league’s commitment to community involvement drove their decision.

“The MASL takes the popular game of soccer and condenses it,” Jim Brooks said. “Which intensifies it, speeds up the pace. Lots of shots, lots of saves, lots of goals. Full excitement for the whole game.”

MASL Commissioner Keith Tozer said ownership groups made a unanimous decision this week to approve the PPL Center for the new team. Tozer, who played professionally for the Pennsylvania Stoners in the 1979 American Soccer League season — an outdoor professional league then based in the Lehigh Valley — said the moment carried personal significance.

“To be back here all these years later, at this moment, it really comes full circle,” Tozer said. “Over the years, we’ve seen soccer grow tremendously right here in Lehigh Valley, across Pennsylvania, throughout the United States, and around the world. And with the World Cup coming to the U.S. this summer, this game is about to reach another level. There’s nothing better than the timing right now for soccer right here in Lehigh Valley.”

Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk and state Sen. Nick Miller joined the announcement alongside the Brooks brothers and Tozer. Miller thanked Reps. Peter Schweyer, Mike Schlossberg and Ana Tiburcio for helping make the day possible.

“Having the Phantoms here gives me an opportunity to poke at other mayors around the country when our teams beat their teams,” Tuerk said. “But now I can add a whole new group of mayors to people that I can poke at — Mayor Scott in Baltimore, Mayor Gloria in San Diego, I’ve got a team now that we can stack up against whatever you guys have to offer.”

Tuerk also welcomed Tozer with a small card, which he said he gives to every new resident of the city.

“Keith, I’m going to teach you — your Spanish was excellent,” Tuerk said. “I’m going to teach you another word that we love here in Allentown, which is bienvenidos.”

The mayor’s gesture pointed to one of the reasons soccer resonates in Allentown. As of 2024, the city’s Hispanic population represented 56.3 percent of the total, according to Data USA. Tuerk was the city’s first Latino mayor, taking office in 2022.

Tozer had opened his remarks with “buenos días, amigos and amigas” before switching to English.

Miller thanked the legislative delegation for helping make the day possible.

“We really have a strong delegation that’s fighting for investments just like this,” Miller said. “All in part thanks to the investment by the state, and Governor Josh Shapiro.”

He also noted that the Downtown Allentown Alliance’s recently launched branding — which prominently features hockey — would need an update.

“It includes hockey, but now we got to add soccer into that promo video,” Miller said.

Jim Brooks said he and his brother grew up in Pittsburgh watching the Pittsburgh Spirit, a team that played in the Major Indoor Soccer League, and that the announcement reflects values instilled by their parents.

“As Rob and I grew up, our parents always reinforced with us, if you want to live in a good community, you gotta do something to make that community better,” Jim Brooks said. “Spring is an awesome time, because it gives us a glimpse of the excitement that’s about to come. And that’s what we’re doing today, too.”

With the FIFA World Cup set to begin this June in Canada, Mexico and the United States, Tozer said the timing could not be better for professional soccer in the Lehigh Valley.

Additional details — including the team’s name, schedule and leadership — will be announced in the coming months, the MASL said.