🔗 Share this article

Put aside poor conditions. Currently, there’s no ice.

With NHL athletes gearing up to make a comeback to the Olympic Games for the first time in more than a decade, construction on the main hockey arena for the Milano Cortina Games is cutting it close.

Local organizers announced on Wednesday that the main test event for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility that was scheduled for December has been moved to a smaller arena – and that no additional trial has been scheduled yet.

This situation raises the prospect that there may not be a game held in the main arena until the puck is dropped for the women's initial games at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the inaugural event.

“The timeline will be extremely tight to the start of the games, the schedule is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milan-Cortina organizing body CEO Andrea Varnier stated in a recent update.

The competition that was intended to evaluate the Santagiulia playing surface was part of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been transferred to the Rho Fair hockey location, which is being set up inside a massive convention center on Milan’s outskirts and will stage secondary matches during the games.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the year before to holding podium competitions. And with a sizable hockey arena, it’s not just about the ice and making sure that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s also about testing food outlets, restrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed modern arena.

This new facility, which is being constructed by a private company, is slated to become Italy’s biggest covered stadium. Following the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a potential future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.

In spite of the postponements and worries, high-priced tickets are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia arena. Seats for the men's championship game on 22 February – the final day of the games – are going for as much as €1,400 (over $1,600). This exceeds for any other athletic competition at the Milano Cortina Games. Solely tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies cost more.

The comeback of NHL stars at the Olympics was revealed in February of last year, with the premier hockey organization permitting its athletes to compete in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

Men's Olympic hockey tournament is set to run from 11-22 February. The women’s tournament runs from 5-19 February.