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Put aside thin ice. Currently, there’s no ice.

With NHL players preparing to make a comeback to the Olympic Games for the first time in more than a ten years, building work on the primary hockey venue for the Milano Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Local organizers announced on Wednesday that the main test event for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been moved to a smaller arena – and that no new test event has been scheduled yet.

The issue raises the prospect that there may not be a match held in the primary venue 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 start of the games, the schedule is very tight. However, we were aware,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier stated in a recent update.

The competition that was supposed to test the Santagiulia ice 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 established inside a massive exhibition hall on Milan’s outskirts and will stage lesser games during the Olympics.

Typically, new Olympic venues are trialled at least the year before to hosting podium competitions. And with a sizable hockey arena, it’s not just about the playing surface and making sure that the playing surface is ready and secure. It’s additionally about testing concession stands, restrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed contemporary stadium.

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

Despite the delays and worries, high-priced tickets are already being sold for matches at the Santagiulia arena. Tickets for the men's championship final on 22 February – the closing day of the Olympics – are going for as much as €1,400 (over $1,600). This exceeds the price of any other athletic competition at the Milan-Cortina Games. Solely tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies are priced higher.

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was revealed in February of last year, with the premier hockey league permitting its players to participate in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

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