🔗 Share this article

Put aside thin ice. For now, there’s no ice.

As NHL players gearing up to return to the Olympic Games for the initial occasion in over a decade, building work on the main hockey venue for the Milan-Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

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

This situation creates the possibility 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 – one day before the opening ceremony.

“It’s going to be extremely tight to the beginning of the Olympics, the timeline is very tight. But we knew that,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier stated recently.

The competition that was supposed to test the Santagiulia ice was a segment of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been transferred to the Rho Fiera hockey location, which is being set up inside a massive exhibition hall on Milan’s outskirts and will host lesser games during the games.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the year before to hosting medal events. And with a sizable hockey arena, it’s not just about the playing surface and making sure that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s additionally about checking food outlets, bathrooms and everything else inside a brand-new contemporary stadium.

This new facility, which is being built by a commercial firm, is slated to become the nation's largest indoor arena. For after the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a potential future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis event.

In spite of the postponements and concerns, expensive passes are already being sold for matches at the Santagiulia arena. Tickets for the men’s gold medal final on 22 February – the closing day of the games – are priced at as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). That’s more than for any other sports event at the Milan-Cortina Games. Solely tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies cost more.

The comeback of NHL players at the Olympics was announced last February, with the world’s top hockey organization permitting its players to participate in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

Men's Olympic hockey competition is scheduled to take place from 11-22 February. Women's tournament occurs from 5-19 February.