Alumnus helped bring FIFA World Cup to Miami — and that’s just one part of his job

Alumnus Mathew Ratner believes in the beauty of Miami and its community.

As the head of sports and entertainment tourism for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB), it’s his job to help elevate the city’s status as a global destination by bringing the most recognized sports and entertainment events to Miami-Dade County.

“I want Miami to shine,” says Ratner, who graduated with his master’s in recreation and sports management from FIU in 2013. “That’s what my team and I do. We make sure that Miami is the main character in everything.” 

That’s why when FIFA reached out the Miami-Dade County mayor’s office asking if local leaders were interested in hosting the World Cup, the GMCVB took hold of the opportunity to work with the mayor’s office and bring FIFA to the ‘305’.

Ratner was part of the team (at the time headed by Ratner’s then-boss, fellow FIU alumnus Jose Sotolongo) that gathered information about the city, airport, transportation, venues, hotels, logistics and more to create a competitive bid to host the World Cup.

Almost 10 years later, Ratner — now in his current role at the GMCVB — has continued working on the project and is happy to see the World Cup come to fruition.

“Miami has a great opportunity to showcase itself to the world,” he says. “We are a worldwide, world-renowned destination, and we want to continue to be on people’s minds.”

The World Cup is the tip of the iceberg. Over the years, Ratner has helped Miami host hundreds of events such as the Miami Open, F1 Miami Grand Prix, PGA Tour, World Baseball Classic, the NASCAR Cup Series Championship and the Discover NHL Winter Classic.

“We work closely with the Marlins, the Miami Heat, the Homestead-Miami Speedway, Miami Marathon and more,” he says. “These are great sports organizations that are fixtures in our community. We make sure they are successful.”

The organizations, Ratner explains, are not just enthralling fans with sports but also actively giving back to the community.

“For example, the Orange Bowl hosts football clinics every year for local children and Major League Baseball renovates fields in Miami-Dade for kids to play on,” Ratner says. “There is a lot of work being done by these organizations behind the scenes to make sure the community is coming together. We help them.”

Ratner also regularly works with producers of major motion pictures (such as the action film Bad Boys: Ride or Die), reality TV shows and others who film in Miami-Dade County.

The power of sports

Ratner, who played baseball in high school, says he’s been a sports guy all his life. He decided to bring together his love of sports with his talent in communications.

He took a role in media relations for the Miami Dolphins, through which he even worked the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa.

He later worked at FIU in sports communications.“I was with football, baseball, soccer and other sports,” he says. “I was here when we won our first Bowl Game in 2010.”

Ratner worked at FIU at the same time that some of the greatest athletes in FIU’s recent history, including football players T.Y. Hilton and Johnathan Cyprien and baseball player Aramis Garcia, who continues in the MLB with the Arizona Diamondbacks, were at the university.

While at FIU, Ratner decided to fulfill a promise he made to his grandfather: to earn a master’s degree. He developed a strong Panther network as a student and staff member, and it was through this network that he learned of the opportunity to join the GMCVB.

“I’ll always be grateful for the opportunities that everyone at FIU gave me for my career and my education,” Ratner says. “No one can ever take your education away from you. It’s so important.”

He says he’s proud to work with FIU whenever possible. “I still have a lot of great friends and work very closely with folks at FIU,” he says. “It really helped me in my career today to have those relationships. If there’s something we can do to boost both the brands of Miami as a great destination and FIU as a great university, that’s amazing.”