🔗 Share this article

Forget about poor conditions. Currently, there’s no ice.

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

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

This situation creates the possibility that there may not be a match held in the main arena until the puck is dropped for the women’s preliminary round at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the opening ceremony.

“The timeline will be extremely tight to the beginning of the games, the timeline is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milan-Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said recently.

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

Usually, new Olympic venues are trialled at least the year before to holding medal events. And with a sizable hockey arena, it’s not just about the playing surface and ensuring that the rink is prepared and safe. It’s additionally about testing food outlets, restrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed contemporary stadium.

This new facility, which is being constructed by a private company, is slated to become Italy’s largest covered stadium. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible future host of the ATP Finals tennis event.

In spite of the delays and concerns, high-priced passes are already being sold for events at the Santagiulia venue. 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 sports event at the Milano Cortina Games. Solely passes 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 Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

The men’s Olympic hockey competition is set to take place from 11-22 February. Women's event runs from 5-19 February.