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Forget about poor conditions. For now, there’s no ice.

With NHL athletes gearing up to return to the Olympics for the first time in over a ten years, construction on the primary hockey arena for the Milano Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Officials confirmed on Wednesday that the main trial competition for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia arena originally planned for December has been moved to a smaller venue – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.

This situation raises the prospect that there might not be a game held in the main arena until the puck is dropped for the women's initial games at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the inaugural event.

“It’s going to be very close to the start of the games, the schedule is highly compressed. But we knew that,” Milano Cortina organizing body CEO Andrea Varnier said recently.

The competition that was supposed to evaluate the Santagiulia ice was part of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been transferred to the Rho Fiera hockey venue, which is being set up inside a giant convention center on the outskirts of Milan and will host secondary matches during the Olympics.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the prior year to holding medal events. And with a large hockey venue, it’s not only about the playing surface and ensuring that the playing surface is ready and secure. It’s additionally about checking concession stands, bathrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed modern stadium.

This new facility, which is being constructed by a private company, is slated to become Italy’s largest covered stadium. For after the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a possible upcoming venue of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.

Despite the delays and worries, high-priced passes are already being sold 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 Milan-Cortina Games. Solely tickets for the inaugural and final events cost more.

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

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