the idea for ciudad deportiva was one of five ideas that mayor maria melendez altieri had for permanent structures for ponce during her administration. she called the five ideas the "emblematic" projects of her administration and dubbed the overall plan "ponce avanza" (ponce moves forward). the original plan judged the initial cost of the "ciudad deportiva" at $4.5 million initially. in 2010, the mayor's plan for ciudad deportiva was presented before the puerto rico senate. in early 2012 the first payment of $1,050,000 was made to cgc builders to start construction work.