If you’re interested in sports and would love to be highly successful within your field, you may be interested in eventually acquiring the position of a sports team general manager. While this position is an exceptionally highly rated position, it can be very difficult to ascend to.

What Is a Sports Team General Manager?

Sports team general managers are highly experienced individuals that are often at the peak of their careers. Highly paid and highly respected, the general manager is often promoted to the position by the owner of the team.

General managers have many connections within the industry and have usually been a part of the industry for over a decade. They will need to closely monitor virtually every aspect of the team, lead the team and deal well with all of the others involved within the team’s development, maintenance and creation.

A sports team general manager usually works very long hours and needs to be constantly on call, but they are also usually very highly paid professionals. They work in a field that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is expected to continue growing.

What Does a Sports Team General Manager Do?

The sports team general manager is usually required to manage all aspects of the team side by side with the other team members. The general manager will work with coaches, promoters, scouts and more to ensure the future success of the team.

General managers need to be more concerned with business than coaches, more concerned with talent than promoters and more concerned with keeping their current team happy than the scouts. In this fashion, the general manager is the glue that keeps the entire team together.

How Do You Become a Sports Team General Manager?

Most general managers will have decades of experience within the sports industry, and education may not count for as much as it usually might because of this. General managers are often team managers, coaches, scouts and other industry professionals that have a very good feel for the sport and understand the intricacies of team development. Sports team general managers are not selected lightly, and they need to be able to display knowledge as well as business strength.

Many general managers are very highly networked within the sports industry. It can be difficult to acquire a position within the field at first, and many may start off as assistant managers rather than becoming a manager initially.

Assistant managers will often have many years of experience within the field and will have proven that they can successfully lead people to success. General managers need to have a background in marketing, business and sports. According to O*Net Online, there are many related fields that have entry-level positions.

How Do You Advance as a Sports Team General Manager?

As with most positions within this field, managers will usually progress as long as they are successful. The team that is under the general manager must remain successful, popular and profitable. Profitability can be extremely important for a general manager, as the general manager is in control of the budgets and the fiscal reporting.

General managers of a sports team may actually be more concerned about revenue than the actual success of a team. A team might not do very well one year but may still make more money through merchandising and promotional prospects.

In this event, the team can then acquire better players and more momentum through the amount of revenue they make. The general manager needs to keep all of these things in mind throughout operations and will advance to greater heights if they can do so.