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Forget about thin ice. For now, there’s no ice.

As NHL players gearing up to return to the Olympic Games for the first time in over a decade, building work on the primary hockey arena for the Milano Cortina Games is cutting it close.

Officials confirmed on Wednesday that the primary test event for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility that was scheduled for December has been moved to a smaller venue – and that no new test event has been arranged yet.

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

“The timeline will be very close to the start of the games, the timeline is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milan-Cortina organizing body CEO Andrea Varnier said in a recent update.

The competition that was supposed to test the Santagiulia ice was a segment of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey location, which is being set up inside a massive exhibition hall on the outskirts of Milan and will stage secondary matches during the Olympics.

Usually, new Olympic venues are trialled at least the year before to holding podium competitions. And with a large hockey venue, it’s not only about the playing surface and making sure that the playing surface is ready and secure. It’s also about checking food outlets, bathrooms and everything else inside a brand-new contemporary arena.

This new facility, which is being built by a commercial firm, is scheduled to become Italy’s largest indoor arena. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a potential upcoming venue of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.

Despite the postponements and worries, expensive passes are already being sold for matches at the Santagiulia arena. Seats for the men’s gold medal game on 22 February – the closing day of the games – are priced at as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). This exceeds for any other athletic competition at the Milan-Cortina Games. Solely tickets 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 first time since 2014 in Sochi.

Men's Olympic hockey competition is set to run from 11-22 February. The women’s event occurs from 5-19 February.