🔗 Share this article

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

With NHL athletes gearing up to return to the Olympics for the initial occasion in more than a decade, building work on the primary hockey venue for the Milano Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Officials announced on Wednesday that the primary test event for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia arena that was scheduled for December has been moved to a more compact venue – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.

This situation creates the possibility that there might not be a game held in the primary venue until the puck is dropped for the women's initial games at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the opening ceremony.

“The timeline will be very close to the start of the games, the timeline is highly compressed. But we knew that,” Milano Cortina organizing body CEO Andrea Varnier stated recently.

The competition that was supposed to evaluate the Santagiulia ice was part of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey venue, which is being established inside a giant exhibition hall on Milan’s outskirts and will host lesser games during the games.

Typically, new Olympic venues are tested at least the prior year to holding medal events. And with a large hockey venue, it’s not only about the ice and ensuring that the playing surface is prepared and safe. It’s additionally about checking food outlets, bathrooms and everything else inside a brand-new modern arena.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being built by a private company, is slated to become the nation's largest indoor arena. For after the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible upcoming venue of the ATP Finals tennis tournament.

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

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was revealed in February of last year, with the world’s top hockey league permitting its players to participate in the Winter Games for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

Men's Olympic hockey tournament is set to run from 11-22 February. Women's event runs from 5-19 February.