General Manager: The Most Desired Job in the World?

30 million people all drafting players, making trades, and following sports news to jump on the latest hyped athlete. 30 million is a pretty sizable number, that is just about four million less than the population of Canada. 

This is the estimated number of people that Wikipedia suggests played fantasy sports in North America. 

That is a whole lot of people wanting to create a sports team in their own image, ones who think that their knowledge will allow them to create a team that will carry them to fantasy glory.  

Think for a second about the ridiculous number of sports video games sold each year, Madden NFL and FIFA are among the top 10 bestselling video game franchises of all time, at 75 million and 65 million copies respectively. Add the various Hockey, Baseball, and Basketball video game franchises onto the top of that number.  

Each year these games are made more complex, giving more control and level of customization to the player. One of the most popular features on these games is to be your own GM. 

A feature that allows you to build a team according to the players you like and the way you think a team should be built.  It is no wonder that online sports pages are full of comments of those who would offer unsolicited advice to the particular GM’s of their favourite sports teams. 

It is also not a surprise that the GM’s of a city’s favourite teams are turned into celebrities themselves. Think about how much is written about Brian Burke, Bryan Colangelo, and Alex Anthopoulos. 

For a hockey mad city like Toronto, every move Burke makes for the Maple Leafs is analyzed over and over. 

This has been happening for decades, long before the invention of sports video games. But this fan commentary has likely risen to all time highs now, due to the escalation of these opportunities to act as a sports GM in your daily life. 

The question is, if you had the chance to run your favourite team, and acquire the resulting glory or criticism, would you want it?