Milan Hockey Venue Delays May Leave NHL Stars on Untested Ice

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

With NHL players preparing to return 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 going down to the wire.

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

The issue creates the possibility that there may not be a game held in the main arena until the competition begins for the women's initial games 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 timeline is highly compressed. But we knew that,” Milan-Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said recently.

The event that was intended to evaluate the Santagiulia playing surface was part of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey location, which is being established inside a massive convention center on the outskirts of Milan and will stage lesser games during the Olympics.

Usually, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the year before to holding medal events. And with a large hockey arena, it’s not just about the ice and ensuring that the rink is prepared and safe. It’s additionally about testing concession stands, restrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed modern stadium.

This new facility, which is being constructed by a private company, is slated to become the nation's largest indoor arena. Following the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a potential upcoming venue of the ATP Finals tennis event.

In spite of the postponements and concerns, expensive tickets are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia venue. Seats for the men’s gold medal game on 22 February – the closing day of the Olympics – are going for as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). This exceeds the price of any other athletic competition at the Milano Cortina Games. Solely tickets for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was announced last February, with the world’s top hockey league permitting its athletes to compete in the Winter Games for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

The men’s Olympic hockey tournament is scheduled to take place from 11-22 February. The women’s tournament runs from 5-19 February.