🔗 Share this article

Put aside poor conditions. For now, the surface isn't ready.

With NHL players gearing up to make a comeback to the Olympic Games for the first time in over a decade, building work on the primary hockey arena for the Milan-Cortina Games is cutting it close.

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

This situation creates the possibility that there might not be a game held in the primary venue until the competition begins for the women’s preliminary round at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the inaugural event.

“It’s going to be very close to the start of the Olympics, the timeline is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milan-Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said recently.

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

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the prior year to holding medal events. And with a sizable hockey venue, it’s not only about the playing surface and making sure that the playing surface is ready and secure. It’s additionally about testing concession stands, bathrooms and everything else inside a brand-new modern arena.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being constructed by a commercial firm, is slated to become the nation's biggest indoor arena. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible upcoming venue of the ATP Finals tennis tournament.

Despite the postponements and worries, expensive tickets are already being purchased for matches at the Santagiulia venue. 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). That’s more than the price of any other athletic competition at the Milano Cortina Games. Solely passes for the opening and closing ceremonies cost more.

The return of NHL stars at the Olympics was revealed in February of last year, with the premier hockey league permitting its athletes to participate in the Winter Games for the initial occasion since 2014 in Sochi.

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