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

As NHL athletes preparing to make a comeback to the Olympic Games for the initial occasion in more than a ten years, construction on the primary hockey venue for the Milan-Cortina Games is cutting it close.

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

This situation raises the prospect 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.

“It’s going to be very close to the start of the Olympics, the timeline is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier stated recently.

The event that was intended to test the Santagiulia ice was part of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been moved to the Rho Fiera hockey venue, which is being established inside a giant exhibition hall on the outskirts of Milan and will stage lesser games during the games.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the prior year to holding podium competitions. And with a large hockey arena, it’s not just about the playing surface and making sure that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s additionally about checking concession stands, bathrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed modern stadium.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being built by a commercial firm, is slated to become the nation's largest covered stadium. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.

In spite of the delays and concerns, high-priced passes are already being purchased for matches at the Santagiulia venue. Seats for the men’s gold medal final on 22 February – the closing day of the Olympics – are going for as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). That’s more than for any other athletic competition at the Milan-Cortina Games. Only passes for the inaugural and final events cost more.

The comeback 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 competition is scheduled to run from 11-22 February. The women’s event runs from 5-19 February.