🏆 Two Decades Building Sports Landmarks: A Global Career

David Carlock is the Founder and Managing Partner at Machete Group, where he leads large scale arena, stadium, and mixed-use real estate projects for teams, leagues, and investors across sports and live entertainment. A Boston native and Harvard graduate, his path runs through strategy roles at Disney and Hard Rock, a pivotal run with the Houston Rockets, and a global advisory career that has touched projects from Toyota Center to Chase Center, TQL Stadium, and new mixed-use districts in markets like Orlando, Chicago, and Louisville.

From Boston to Disney and Hard Rock

David grew up in Boston before heading to a small Division III school in Maine for a year before taking time away from campus. During that year off he started a couple of small businesses, then transferred to Harvard and graduated in 1994. Coming out of school, he joined The Walt Disney Company in the strategic planning group, Disney’s internal consulting and corporate strategy team. He was based in corporate but assigned to the attractions and resorts group in Orlando.

Before his analyst program wrapped up, an executive from Disney left for Hard Rock Cafe and recruited David to join him. At the time Hard Rock was owned by the Rank Group, and the mandate was simple and wide open: extend the Hard Rock brand into new lines of business. “We looked at new restaurant concepts, casinos, hotels, live performance venues, and helped develop a lot of those strategies,” he says.

Landing in Houston and Building Toyota Center

That work brought him into contact with leaders at the NBA league office, including George Postolos, then special assistant to Commissioner David Stern. When Postolos became President of the Houston Rockets, David joined him. “My primary assignment was to negotiate an agreement with the Harris County Convention and Sports Authority to develop a new building, and then to make sure that it got delivered,” he says.

He served as project executive on Toyota Center, which opened in 2003, and ended up running the building for three years. “It was not part of the plan, but in retrospect was a great experience,” he says. He stayed with the Rockets through 2006 before deciding it was time to pursue something entrepreneurial.

Going Independent and Going Global

When David stepped away, he leaned on relationships he had built and followed the work that emerged. The NBA began sending him to China to support arena development as the league expanded globally. He worked on the basketball venue for the 2008 Beijing Olympics along with major arenas in Shanghai and Guangzhou, and also consulted on the NBA’s retail business in the region.

In the United States, he supported Mikhail Prokhorov’s acquisition of the Brooklyn Nets and represented him on Barclays Center. He continued to take on additional work across sports and entertainment while exploring opportunities in other industries. “I spent the first handful of years just trying to figure out what I wanted to do next,” he says.

Building Machete Group

Around 2014, the direction crystallized. “I am having a lot of fun doing what I am doing in sports and entertainment, and people are willing to hire me to take on these kinds of projects, so maybe it is time to lean into this,” he says. Machete Group formed soon after and grew from pure advisory into full execution. Clients began asking him to run entire developments, not just provide guidance. Now in 2025, the firm’s portfolio is a mix of both public assembly venue work (arenas, stadiums, ballparks, and music venues) and mixed-use development projects, typically in partnership with a sports team.

Past and current public assembly venue assignments include Chase Center, TQL Stadium, Webster Hall (delivered in partnership with AEG), and Carmax Park in Richmond, VA (which he believes “is going to be one of the best minor league ballparks in the country”). Active mixed-use projects include Westcourt, a partnership with the Orlando Magic and JMA Ventures to develop 1m square feet of mixed-use assets next to Kia Center; the 1901 Project in Chicago where Machete Group is working with the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks to deliver a 50+ acre mixed development; and the five-acre Barrel Yard in Louisville where Machete Group has partnered with Diamond Baseball Holdings, owner of the local Louisville Bats baseball team.

Zooming in on the Work

On a typical arena or stadium development, Machete plays an owner’s representative or development management role. “The idea there generally is that it is our job to take the wheel and deliver the project,” David says. That can include securing entitlements, running RFPs to select design teams, managing designers throughout the process, selecting a general contractor or construction manager at risk, and buying out the job.

Machete coordinates across stakeholder groups on the client side, from basketball, soccer, or baseball operations to partnership sales, ticketing, marketing, PR and corporate functions. “We figure out what the owner wants, make sure that aligns with their underwriting, and then our job is to deliver that project in accordance with the budget targets and the schedule goals,” he says.

Breaking Into Business and Sports

After two decades across teams, leagues, and major developments, David is clear on what drives careers. “The reality is the sports business, ultimately, is a sales business,” he says. Entry level roles often reward the people willing to get on the phone and grind.

He points to two traits that consistently matter: work ethic and storytelling. “If you want to do something significant, you just have to work really hard,” he says. But he emphasizes that hard work is not enough if people cannot understand or champion what you are building. “The most important skill set, in my mind, is how good of a storyteller are you.”

The Why Behind the Work

Today his motivation is simple. First, he feels a responsibility to partners and clients. “That is a very powerful motivator for me,” he says. The second is joy. “I love this work, and I know how lucky I am to be able to say that.” Taking on complex projects with people he trusts is still what keeps him moving forward.