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.
Read related: Coral Gables Vice Mayor Mike Mena votes to sell city land to his bosses
“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.
Read related: Mike Mena’s Coral Gables land deal looks shady; residents ask for his head
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
View all posts by Ladra →
Football isn’t that important, folks. Ruiz stinks to high hell, btw. Someone should check into his background. Sounds like an embarrassing scandal waiting to happen.
Can John Ruiz even think that anyone can take him seriously!
Attorney John Ruiz may have good intentions. Even Mayor Suarez may have good intentions with the Mel Reese Park development that Who knows? mentions above. But I ask, I plead, to all those well intentioned or not, to not build any new developments that will attract more traffic to Le Jeune Road. When the Miami/Hialeah/Miami-Dade street system was created, it worked fine for the small municipalities then, but Miami-Dade traffic has overgrown that original plan. There are too few roads that cross north-south near Miami Int’l Airport. If you don’t take Le Jeune Road, then you have to travel 15 avenues east to NW 27 ave, or 30 avenues west to Milam Dairy Road, NW 72 ave. So all the traffic traveling north-south in that area funnels through Le Jeune Road. In my neck of the woods, Southeast Hialeah, Okeechobee Road backs up for blocks in the morning, where it crosses Le Jeune. Every morning, and every evening, traffic backs up on Le Jeune Road for a small eternity. In the afternoons, any time you approach the airport from any direction on a street level road, you are in for a long delay. Or try driving to Coral Gables from Hialeah, without wasting an extra half hour in traffic. And it is only getting worse. How about coming up with a plan to move traffic along, rather than making for more traffic on this already overloaded thoroughfare?
Never underestimate the ability of elected and government officials to make stupid decisions. Forcing the taxpayers to pay over $3 Billion for the Marlins Stadium ON TOP of a 40 acre public park is a good example.
Build a 40-50K seat stadium directly north of the University MetroRail Station on UM’s campus
Who knows? Miami-Dade and City of Miami elected officials voted to demolish the revered Orange Bowl AFTER $50 Million had just been spent on renovations. The Marlins Stadium will cost taxpayers over $3 Billion, including debt service. And City of Miami Mayor Suarez badly wants to demolish 100 acres of Melreese Park AND the City’s ONLY golf course as he panders to a Coral Gables billionaire who wants to build a hotel and office buildings.
LOL… good one John.. As second gen ‘cane, UM and Gables alumni who also lives near both schools and would love to see a campus stadium, file this under DOA.