It can be reached by public transport via the Hato Rey Station of the Tren Urbano and the Puerto Rico Metropolitan Bus Authority from nearby stops.

The Coliseum was a project started during the administration of Governor Rafael Hernández Colón, initially as part of a bid to host the 2004 Olympic Games.

[citation needed] The facility was supposed to be constructed between the Roberto Clemente Coliseum and Hiram Bithorn Stadium, about a mile and a half away from the current arena site.

Recognizing the need for such a facility anyway, the government decided to continue the construction, this time at a site physically close to San Juan's financial district, the Golden Mile.

Since the new site was adjacent to a future Tren Urbano station, the Coliseum's planners decided not to incorporate parking facilities to the arena, as to induce visitors to use mass transportation to reach it.

The contract's expense would be justified by bringing in an operating partner with international experience managing world-class facilities, whose reputation would ensure that performers and sport events that had never been staged in Puerto Rico could visit the island.

She claimed that the Puerto Rican government had spent $242 million for a facility where only 42% of its scheduled project plan had been completed when she took office.

The planners and constructors had overlooked the fact that a water pumping station next to the facility had been built over unstable land, and a portion of the building's foundations would have had to be redone because of this.

There was even talk of demolishing what had been built and starting from scratch, which infuriated Rosselló supporters, who dismissed the suggestion as merely an excuse to spend more government money, this time to benefit the PPD's financial backers.

[citation needed] Another controversy came about when Banco Popular's subsidiary Ticketpop was named the ticketing distributor through an exclusive contract, almost ignoring the bid by competitor TicketCenter.

Local producer Angelo Medina spearheaded a group that wanted the legislature to curb the managing powers of SMG (before merging to ASM Global in 2019), recently-named to oversee operations and activities, because they feared that the company's relationship with non-local television companies would limit the participation of local talent in the arena.