By 1942, however, that original Philadelphia franchise (which was renamed the "Rockets" in 1941 after losing its affiliation with the New York Rangers) fell on hard times and permanently suspended operations.

For the 12 seasons (1984–96) prior to the Phantoms' founding, the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Philadelphia Flyers had maintained a highly-successful affiliation with the AHL's oldest franchise, the Hershey Bears, which included a Calder Cup title in 1988.

A crowd of 17,380 (the club's ninth sell-out of the year) filled the Spectrum on the evening of June 10, 1998, for Game 6 of the finals that saw the Phantoms play a virtually flawless contest as they defeated the Flames 6–1 behind the stellar goaltending of Neil Little, who had allowed just 48 post-season goals on his way to a 15–5 playoff record.

Winger Mike Maneluk earned the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the playoff MVP while also being the League's leading post-season scorer with 34 points (13 goals and 21 assists).

With a capacity crowd of 17,380 at the Spectrum on April 11 to watch the Phantoms conclude their home schedule against the Hershey Bears, the club established an AHL-best overall single season attendance record of 480,106 for an average of 12,002 fans per game.

In November 2003, long-time NHL tough guy and former Flyer left wing Craig Berube signed with the Phantoms to finish his 18-year professional career back in Philadelphia as a player/assistant coach.

While Niittymaki saw most of the playing time in the season, veteran Phantom netminder Neil Little was still able to make his mark as he became just the tenth goaltender in AHL history to accumulate 200 wins when he shut-out the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on March 4 as the club compiled a 16–7–1 record over the final two months of the regular season to finish just three points behind the Jason Spezza-led Binghamton Senators for second place in the division.

While the Phantoms were already a very solid contender entering the playoffs, the roster improved drastically with the addition of the Flyers' two graduating 2003 first-round draft picks, centers Jeff Carter of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL)'s Sault Ste.

Marie Greyhounds (taken 11th overall) and Mike Richards of the OHL' Kitchener Rangers (taken 24th); each joined the Phantoms after their respective junior team were eliminated from the Memorial Cup.

The Phantoms' 2005 playoff run began against the Norfolk Admirals, a team that had defeated Philadelphia in six of their ten regular-season meetings including the last game of the season played at the Spectrum on April 17.

(With the circus in the Spectrum for two weeks as the playoffs began and no conflicting Flyers' post-season dates at the Center because of the lockout, the AHL club would end up playing all 13 of its home Calder Cup games in the much larger NHL building.)

He was even better in Game 2, however, holding the high-scoring Wolves to just one goal in a 2–1 double overtime victory to send the series back to Philadelphia where the next three games—if necessary—would be played and where the Phantoms were already 11–0 in the playoffs.

The Phantoms did not disappoint the SRO crowd as they defeated the Wolves handily, 5–2, with center Ben Stafford (who retired after the playoffs and is now a lieutenant in US Marine Corps serving in Iraq)[2] collecting the Cup-winning goal.

Rookie Jeff Carter's 23 points (12 goals and 11 assists) earned him individual honors as the AHL's top scorer in the playoffs, while Niittymaki won the Jack Butterfield Award as the Calder Cup MVP.

The Phantoms' victory was just the fifth time that a professional hockey title in any league had been won in a game taking place in Philadelphia since the sport was first played in the city in 1927.

Nine players—Antero Niittymaki, Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Patrick Sharp, Jon Sim, Joni Pitkanen, Dennis Seidenberg, Freddy Meyer and R. J. Umberger—all saw regular service with the Flyers in 2005–06, while Ben Eager, Randy Jones, Josh Gratton, Wade Skolney and Ryan Ready also were called up at least once during the season.

Due to the impending demolition of the Wachovia Spectrum, originally scheduled for February 4, 2009, it was announced that Comcast Spectacor reached an agreement to sell the Phantoms to the Brooks Group of Pittsburgh.

On April 10, 2009, the Phantoms played their final regular season home game at the Spectrum in front of a standing room only crowd of 17,380 (the 21st sell-out in team history) and defeated the Hershey Bears, 5–2.

Rob Sirianni collected the final regular season hat-trick in Spectrum history while the win also secured the Phantoms a berth in the Calder Cup playoffs.

"[4] The Phantoms ended their 13th and final AHL regular season schedule with a 3–2 loss in Hershey the following night, setting-up a Hershey/Philadelphia matchup in the first round of the 2009 Calder Cup playoffs.