Chicago Blitz

The Blitz were one of the charter members of the USFL. The ownership group was headed by renowned heart surgeon Dr. Ted Diethrich, with legendary coach George Allen and Southern California developer Bill Harris as minority partners. Diethrich served as president, with Harris as executive vice president and Allen as chairman of the board and head coach.
Allen had been out of coaching since 1977; he had been a candidate for the vacant head coaching position with the Chicago Bears a year earlier, but Bears owner George Halas had never forgiven Allen for defecting to the Rams in 1965. Allen immediately became the "face" of the new team, and set about putting together the best 40-man roster he could find. The result was a team that was the early favorite to be the new league's first champion.
They finished in a tie for the Central Division title, but were awarded a wild card berth due to being swept by the eventual champion Michigan Panthers. In the playoffs, they blew a 21-point lead over the Philadelphia Stars, losing 44-38 in overtime.

Despite the fact that the Blitz were one of the strongest teams in the league (some suggested that they could have been competitive in the NFL), they struggled a little at the gate, averaging only 18,100 fans. (It should be noted that these numbers were very similar to the numbers the Philadelphia Stars and Michigan Panthers achieved in their first year. Both of those franchises would see dramatically higher attendance numbers in their second season based on their on-field success in their first year.)

Diethrich had lost millions of dollars in 1983, was not confident in the team's ability to draw fans, and didn't feel the losses justified making an investment for a team far from his home in Phoenix (he was the founder of the Arizona Heart Institute). As it turned out, Arizona Wranglers owner Jim Joseph had lost almost as much money as Diethrich, and put his team on the market as well.
This resulted in one of the most unusual transactions in sports history. Diethrich and his group sold the Blitz to Milwaukee heart surgeon James Hoffman. The Diethrich group then bought the Wranglers from Joseph. Almost immediately after Diethrich closed on his purchase of the Wranglers, he and Hoffman agreed to swap their assets--players, coaching staff and all. The result was that, with few exceptions, the 1983 Blitz became the Wranglers, while the 1983 Wranglers became the Blitz. (The most notable exception was that Wrangler triggerman Alan Risher stayed in Arizona to back up Veteran Greg Landry).

(While the USFL was active, the league considered the 1983 and 1984 Blitz to be the same franchise, even though almost all the players were different.)

The deal transformed the Wranglers from a cellar-dweller to a powerhouse almost overnight, but the league allowing the transformation of the Blitz into a lesser version of the 4-14 Wranglers raised questions about the USFL's credibility --- especially in Chicago.

The trade created a situation that had the potential of making an already bad attendance situation in Chicago even worse.