🔗 Share this article

Forget about thin ice. Currently, there’s no ice.

As NHL players preparing to return to the Olympics for the first time in more than a decade, construction on the primary hockey venue for the Milan-Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Local organizers announced on Wednesday that the main test event for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been relocated to a smaller arena – and that no additional trial 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 – one day before the inaugural event.

“It’s going to be very close to the start of the Olympics, the timeline is highly compressed. But we knew that,” Milan-Cortina organizing body CEO Andrea Varnier stated recently.

The competition that was supposed to test the Santagiulia ice was a segment of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been transferred to the Rho Fair hockey location, which is being established inside a massive exhibition hall on the outskirts of Milan and will stage secondary matches during the games.

Usually, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the year before to holding medal events. And with a sizable hockey arena, it’s not only about the ice and making sure that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s additionally about testing food outlets, bathrooms and everything else inside a brand-new modern arena.

This new facility, which is being constructed by a private company, is slated to become the nation's biggest covered stadium. For after the Olympics, it’s being considered as a potential upcoming venue of the ATP Finals tennis tournament.

Despite the postponements and worries, high-priced passes are already being sold for events at the Santagiulia arena. Seats for the men’s gold medal final on 22 February – the closing day of the games – are going for as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). This exceeds for any other sports event at the Milan-Cortina Games. Only tickets for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was announced in February of last year, with the world’s top hockey organization allowing its players to compete in the Winter Games for the initial occasion since 2014 in Sochi.

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