No real plans in sight for UM Hurricanes home at Coral Gables High
Nobody would pay any attention to a late-night TV attorney who enthusiastically tweets over the weekend about building a football stadium for the University of Miami Hurricanes next to million dollars homes in Coral Gables — if it weren’t for the fact that he is politically connected.
John Ruiz, who used to host the La Ley show to give foreclosure and personal injury advice to viewers of Spanish-language TV, says he is forming a “committee” to pursue a 50,000-seat football stadium in The City Beautiful — and he’s looking right on the grounds of Coral Gables High.
Well, good luck with that.
Gables Mayor Vince Lago confirmed to Ladra Monday that there are no plans to build a football stadium on the high school grounds or anywhere else in the City Beautiful, for that matter. Lago laughed out loud about it but was not happy-like. More like a little upset so many people were buying it.
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“Why are we taking anything seriously that has not been properly vetted or taken to the attention of the city, the University of Miami or the Miami-Dade School Board,” Lago asked. “Nobody has ever come to me while I’ve been in office to build a stadium in Coral Gables, let alone at the high school and adjacent to a residential neighborhood.”
Lago noted that the city has worked with the school board and superintendent over the past couple of years and that about $50 million from the $1.2 billion bond monies approved in 2012 has been spent improving the school, which opened in 1950.
“It’s a historic institution. It’s really a community school,” said Miami-Dade School Board Mari Tere Rojas. “We were perplexed when we first heard of this. Where did this come from? We just finished investing $49 million from our capital improvements bond fund to make it a second-to-none, state-of-the-art facility.”
Lago said he got several calls about the rumor on Monday. But had he spoken to Ruiz?
“I have work to do,” Lago scoffed after spending three hours at the first meeting of the new Miami-Dade County Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board, where he was made vice chair. He is also preparing for a city commission meeting on Tuesday where this is likely to be discussed, even though Lago says it is not an issue.
“Who is driving this hysteria,” he asked.
If Ruiz wasn’t partners with former Coral Gables Commissioner Frank Quesada at MSP Recovery, a Medicare litigation firm that employs current Coral Gables Commissioner Mike Mena, nobody would give him the time of day. But the political connections make this scary to some.
Almost 600 people (as of 2 p.m. Monday) had signed an online petition against any football stadium at the school.
Lots of folks thinks Ruiz used his connections to buy a city-owned parking lot on Le Jeune for $3.5 million earlier this year. Mena did not recuse himself from the vote.
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This stadium rumor apparently started on some college sports blog over the weekend as they reported on multiple changes in the UM football coaching and management staff. But on Sunday night, Ruiz — who recently bought a $25-million mansion on Arvida Avenue — added fuel to the fire on twitter.
“We have the best fans! No stone unturned… Ruiz Family has named a Miami Orange Bowl Stadium Committee. It will be released in a few hours,” he tweeted Sunday night. “Fans, this is going to happen!!! I am currently working around the clock. WE WILL HAVE A STATE OF THE ART STADIUM!”
Um, don’t bet on it. At least not on the high school grounds.
Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the Herald Monday morning that nobody had approached the school board either formally or informally.
“It is a school with a great deal of history, located within a residential neighborhood,” he said. “This has come on us in a very surprising way. We respect our schools, we respect the community and at this point we are not entertaining any such idea.”
It’s not like Ruiz has the best track record in sports anyway. He signed a lease-to-own contract with the city of Homestead for the old baseball stadium, with plans to turn it into a “first class” athletic sports venue. But he could not secure insurance and the city ended up evicting him.
Coral Gables residents won’t let it get that far.
Attorney John Ruiz ruffles Coral Gables feathers with silly football stadium talk added by Ladra on
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