John Ruiz, Cuban-origin multimillionaire, wants to build soccer stadium in Coral Gables

December 14, 2021

Multimillionaire John Ruiz, a Cuban-American graduate of the University of Miami, wants to build a new soccer stadium near the school's campus in the city of Coral Gables.

Ruiz, who grew up in Miami, is the chief executive officer of the company MSP Recovery, which offers data recovery services in Coral Gables. He has three children who have graduated from the same university.

He now comments that he wants to build a new stadium for the Hurricanes soccer team in the city, an idea that he shared on social media and quickly went viral. "I feel that, over the years, the University that had this value, has lost it," he told local media.

His first proposal is to put it in the place where Coral Gables Senior High School currently stands and improve the school at the same time.

"It's not about taking away anything that's there or its heritage, or taking away the children, I love children. I want to help the children," he explained. However, some oppose the idea, including the city's former mayor, Raúl Valdés-Fauli.

Valdés-Fauli believes there is almost no chance that the initiative will work there, or anywhere else in the city, calling the idea "stupid."

"We don't want the stadium in the middle of Coral Gables with the traffic it will generate, the noise it will generate, and it would have to go in the middle of a residential area," he said.

Ruiz intends to build a stadium for the soccer team as the centerpiece of a larger sports facility for the entire county, and also make Coral Gables High a cutting-edge school. For now, the proposal is only an aspiration, as it has not been presented to the city.