UM booster John Ruiz wants to launch Coral Gables football stadium effort

A prominent University of Miami booster is mounting an effort to build the Hurricanes football team a new home in Coral Gables.

Coral Gables-based attorney John Ruiz is forming an eight-member committee that will push for the development of a college football stadium at Coral Gables Senior High School, according to the Miami Herald.

Ruiz, founder of MSP Recovery, a law practice that specializes in clawing back Medicare and Medicaid payments from third parties, said the committee’s members are other UM alumni including his three adult children, an MSP Recovery lawyer named Gino Morrero, former television journalist Diana Diaz and Mocca Realty broker Alex Pirez, the Miami Herald reported.

“The University of Miami obviously is migrating towards making the school sports and overall campus much better,” Ruiz told the Miami Herald.

The Miami Hurricanes currently play home games at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, roughly 17 miles away from the university’s Coral Gables campus. The team’s longtime home, the Orange Bowl in Miami’s Little Havana, was demolished in 2008 to make way for Marlins Park.

Ruiz provided scant details to the Miami Herald on how the construction would be financed, who would foot the bill and whether the Coral Gables City Commission would even entertain his bold idea.

Over the past year, Ruiz has been wheeling and dealing in luxury homes in the City Beautiful. In September, an entity with the same address as MSP Recovery sold a waterfront house in Gables Estates for $13.8 million. The entity paid $11 million for the 1-acre property in March 2020.

Also in September, Ruiz dropped $25 million for another mansion in Gables Estates, about a year after paying $49 million for a tropical resort-style property in the same neighborhood.

[Miami Herald] — Francisco Alvarado