🔗 Share this article

Forget about poor conditions. Currently, the surface isn't ready.

With NHL players gearing up to return to the Olympics for the first time in more than a decade, building work on the main hockey arena for the Milan-Cortina Games is cutting it close.

Local organizers announced on Wednesday that the main test event for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been relocated to a more compact venue – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.

This situation raises the prospect that there might not be a match held in the main arena until the puck is dropped for the women's initial games at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the opening ceremony.

“It’s going to be extremely tight to the start of the games, the timeline is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said in a recent update.

The event that was intended to test the Santagiulia playing surface was a segment of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey location, which is being set up inside a giant exhibition hall on the outskirts of Milan and will stage secondary matches during the games.

Typically, new Olympic venues are trialled at least the year before to holding medal events. And with a sizable hockey venue, it’s not only about the ice and ensuring that the rink is ready and secure. It’s also about testing food outlets, restrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed contemporary stadium.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being built by a commercial firm, is scheduled to become Italy’s largest indoor arena. For after the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a potential future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.

Despite the postponements and concerns, high-priced passes are already being sold for events 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 (over $1,600). This exceeds the price of any other athletic competition at the Milano Cortina Games. Solely tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies cost more.

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

The men’s Olympic hockey tournament is scheduled to run from 11-22 February. The women’s event occurs from 5-19 February.