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

As NHL athletes gearing up to make a comeback to the Olympic Games for the first time in more than a ten years, building work on the main hockey arena for the Milan-Cortina Games is cutting it close.

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

The issue creates the possibility that there might 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 inaugural event.

“The timeline will be extremely tight to the start of the games, the schedule 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 playing surface 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 established inside a massive convention center on Milan’s outskirts and will stage secondary matches during the Olympics.

Usually, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the year before to hosting podium competitions. And with a large hockey venue, it’s not only about the playing surface and ensuring that the rink is ready and safe. It’s also about testing food outlets, bathrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed contemporary arena.

This new facility, which is being built by a private company, is scheduled to become Italy’s biggest indoor arena. For after the Olympics, it’s being considered as a potential future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.

Despite the delays and worries, high-priced passes are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia venue. Seats for the men's championship game 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 the price of any other sports event at the Milano Cortina Games. Only passes for the opening and closing ceremonies cost more.

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was revealed last February, with the world’s top hockey league allowing its players to compete in the Winter Games for the initial occasion 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.