By Eddie Lopez
On August 6, Florida International University announced a 10-year partnership with global superstar Pitbull for the naming rights of the football stadium in an energy filled press conference with members of the media, staff members, student athletes and family.
What some might not know is that three Columbus Alumni brought the deal home.
The journey to the partnership began two years ago in the FIU athletics office.
Meet Alex Kelley, Class of ‘93, whose career has taken him from the Miami Marlins to St. Thomas University to the University of Miami and now FIU where he has been for the past 14 years.
As the chief revenue officer of athletics, Kelley is tasked with finding ways, traditional or not, to bring revenue to the FIU athletic department.
“With everybody competing for NIL and how that’s evolved the landscape, we knew that our most important assets needed to have a partner and the football stadium was first and foremost,” Kelley said.
Deep down, Kelley felt that there was something unique that could be done with the FIU, thus Kelley observed Pitbull as a potential suitor.
“There is a freedom in being a younger University meaning we can take risks. There was this thought stuck in my head for the longest time so I researched it to the best of my ability and asked [Van Wagner] to research it as well. The thought was that no artist had ever had a concert in a stadium that had their name on it. Shakira had never performed in Shakira Stadium, so that started the snowball of ideas. We said well, who is on the Mount Rushmore of South Florida artists. You’ve got Gloria Estefan, Rick Ross and obviously Pitbull,” he said.
The conversations took off from there and the school set their eyes on Pitbull as the potential suitor for the partnership. There was one problem though, they still needed a contact for Mr. Worldwide.
Luckily for Kelley and the school, a Columbus brother was able to come up big.
Alfred Caballero, class of ‘88, is the director of sponsorship sales at Van Wagner College Division, the multimedia rights partner of FIU, shared the same vision and was able to get in contact with a member of Armando’s team, setting up a meeting to discuss the partnership.
“I was able to get a hold of the executive vice president of 305 Worldwide, Pitbull’s creative agency. I said ‘Can you imagine a Pitbull stadium one day?’ and I painted the picture for him. He was quick to respond and said you need to speak to Tom Muzquiz who is Pitbull’s personal manager. We connected through an email and scheduled a meeting at the stadium where we went through the whole idea,” said Caballero.
Upon further discussion with Pitbull’s team, Caballero made it a point to stress the magnitude of the potential partnership.
“I told [Tom], this is gonna be the best fit partnership probably in the history of college athletics and that’s prophetic because when I look back today after the press conference, it is the best fit for college athletics,” he said.
Then came a third piece to the puzzle in the form of Rene Ruiz. Ruiz graduated with the class of ‘95 and later went on to study at FIU completing his degree in just two years and one semester following his graduation, he moved on to the University of Miami Law school where he became a practicing lawyer at the age of 23.
Ruiz, working for Stearns Weaver Miller is also Pitbull’s general counsel and director of business and was advised about the potential partnership with FIU and decided to take a visit.
At first, Pitbull was not interested in the partnership but a visit to the campus by Ruiz made such an impression that it sparked a new interest in the school.
“When I went there, it was four buildings and I graduated from FIU in ‘98. Now coming back, it’s like a city, it's unbelievable. I wish I was going to FIU now, there is a campus life, kids are living there, restaurants, stadiums, what a dream,” Ruiz said.
Besides the fit on campus, Ruiz knew that there was something deeper to this partnership that aligned perfectly with Pitbull’s goals.
“He is always looking for a way to make an impact and I said look, we’ve made a tremendous impact through elementary, middle and high schoolers through SLAM!, our charter school network, but we have never been able to take that impact past high school and into college and trade schools,”
A meeting at FIU shifted the tides of the negotiations and left both sides of the party with a sense of certainty.
“The minute we sat down the FIU president with Alex Kelley, Pitbull and myself, and we got in a room to have lunch together, we were like this makes sense. We left that meeting saying we're gonna find a way to make this happen.” Ruiz said.
Early on as the meetings progressed, the men realized the Columbus brotherhood was in the room.
“It came up very early in conversation, I asked [Ruiz] what school he went to and he said he went to Columbus. Alfred and I both looked at each other and said ‘We’ve got another Columbus guy right here’ and spent the rest of the meeting reminiscing and it really set the mood for the whole deal. That was the one thing that bound us all together, that Columbus brotherhood,” Kelley explained
“When we realized I was like, we’re halfway there already now we’re gonna get it done,” said Caballero.
Going back to Pitbull’s care for the community, Ruiz and Pitbull understood that this was something bigger than them.
“We want to be used as the instruments that God uses us to help other people and I think it is our obligation to do that and I think this was a wonderful way to do it. It took alot of negotiating but we made it happen and I think it is gonna be a really beautiful and impactful partnership going forward. A lot of good will and desire on both sides,” Ruiz said.
The deal not only brings in the community with events but with cultural representation throughout the stadium as well.
“Our end zones say DALE FIU, you probably won't have that in another market other than at FIU because it makes sense with the partnership and the brand,” Caballero added.
After two years of negotiation, the agreement between both sides was finalized in May of 2024.
The real fruition came on September 7 when Pitbull Stadium opened up its gates for Panther fans and alumni to see.
Alex Kelley reflected on accomplishing something he always wanted to do.
“It was indescribable, I’ve been in college athletics now for almost 25 years and since the day I’ve got in it I’ve wanted to do something that’s never happened before especially as you get towards the end of a career, you want to know what your legacy is what mark have you made and there aren’t very many firsts left and everyone says that they want to leave their mark and it is always hard to define,” he said.
“A lot of the things we do are never really seen, we’re behind the scenes. Our job is to generate revenue to do the things to put our student athletes to be in a position to succeed. To see how it all came together and to see the level of POP that I dreamed it could have, was probably the most fulfilling thing I have done in collegiate athletics.”
To note, Kelley was a part of the athletics department during two national football championships at the University of Miami.
While these three men were united together to bring home this deal, their passion, work ethic and faith can all be traced back to 87th avenue and 32nd street.
Kelley thought back on the relationships he made during his time at Columbus.
“I had some really close friends which I’m still very close with today, they’re some of the best years of my life, just the camaraderie being in those classrooms…You could have blunt conversations and you were really allowed to be who you are,” Kelley said.
Alfred Caballero graduated in 1988, and his son followed his footsteps graduating from Columbus as well. Caballero understands the power of the brotherhood and continues to give back to the school in the form of the Knights of Columbus scholarship, presented to a Columbus student each.
He said his time at Columbus was the foundation of the person he is today.
“The Marist mission of making Jesus Christ known and loved starts here and it creates the DNA you have today. Faith and brotherhood live in your heart and it builds communities. If you meet another Columbus guy, it doesn’t matter the year, we just know, we have that instant brotherhood and we help each other out, it's who we are,” Caballero said.
Ruiz, who currently has a son attending Columbus, has seen firsthand what the brotherhood can achieve and hopes to pass down the message.
“I tell my son all of the time, you need to develop relationships with the kids in your class because all of them will be successful. Those kids are gonna be the mayor, the president of a bank and it is incredible to look back at my class and see what we’ve all done. It is an incredible network of friends and possibilities for you to make things happen,” said Ruiz.
Time will tell what the next great accomplishment comes out of the Columbus Brotherhood.
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