🔗 Share this article

Put aside thin ice. Currently, the surface isn't ready.

As NHL players preparing to make a comeback to the Olympics for the initial occasion in over a decade, building work on the main hockey venue for the Milano Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Officials confirmed on Wednesday that the main trial competition for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia facility that was scheduled for December has been relocated to a smaller venue – and that no new test event has been arranged yet.

This situation creates the possibility that there might not be a game held in the main arena until the competition begins for the women’s preliminary round at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the inaugural event.

“The timeline will be extremely tight to the start of the Olympics, the schedule is highly compressed. But we knew that,” Milan-Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said in a recent update.

The competition that was supposed to evaluate the Santagiulia ice was a segment of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been moved to the Rho Fiera hockey venue, which is being established inside a giant exhibition hall on Milan’s outskirts and will stage lesser games during the games.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the year before to hosting medal events. And with a sizable hockey arena, it’s not only about the playing surface and ensuring that the rink is ready and secure. It’s also about checking concession stands, bathrooms and all other amenities inside a brand-new contemporary arena.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being constructed by a commercial firm, is slated to become Italy’s largest indoor arena. For after the Olympics, it’s being considered as a potential future host of the ATP Finals tennis event.

In spite of the postponements and concerns, expensive passes are already being sold for matches at the Santagiulia venue. Seats for the men's championship final on 22 February – the closing day of the Olympics – are going for as much as €1,400 (over $1,600). This exceeds for any other athletic competition at the Milan-Cortina Games. Only passes for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.

The return of NHL stars at the Olympics was announced in February of last year, with the world’s top hockey league allowing its athletes to participate in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

The men’s Olympic hockey competition is scheduled to take place from 11-22 February. The women’s tournament runs from 5-19 February.