On June 27, 2021, some residents of Didi Digomi held a protest to protect the green space and called on the Ministry of Economy, Tbilisi City Hall, and the Georgian Football Federation to cancel the decision to build a closed-type stadium.

In 2019, as part of the “Your Idea to the Mayor” competition, with a finalist idea supported by citizens, a park was supposed to be built on this site. However, later, in the II Microdistrict, between apartment buildings, instead of a park, the construction of a closed stadium was planned. According to one of the protest organizers, Helen Mechitova, 41 trees were cut down for this project.

Locals said that the decision to build the stadium and training base in their neighborhood was made without consulting them. They learned about it only at the end of April of that year, when preparatory work began and it became clear that the Football Federation was starting to build a football center on the land they had been asking to be developed since 2016.

On December 3, residents protested again when construction machinery was brought to the site. Police were deployed to protect the work, and according to reports, four people were detained for resisting law enforcement. After that, the construction preparations were suspended, and residents received an offer to negotiate.

On December 23, the area was fenced off, further angering locals. Police again arrived at the disputed site.

Ultimately, despite public opposition, the stadium was built and opened on November 24, 2022.