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

With NHL players preparing to return to the Olympics for the first time in more than a ten years, building work on the primary hockey arena for the Milano Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Local organizers confirmed on Wednesday that the main test event for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia arena originally planned 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 match held in the main arena until the competition begins for the women’s preliminary round 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,” Milan-Cortina organizing body CEO Andrea Varnier stated recently.

The event that was intended to test the Santagiulia playing surface was part of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been transferred to the Rho Fiera hockey location, which is being established inside a giant exhibition hall on the outskirts of Milan and will host secondary matches during the games.

Usually, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the year before to hosting medal events. And with a sizable hockey venue, it’s not just about the ice and making sure that the rink is ready and safe. It’s additionally about checking food outlets, bathrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed modern stadium.

This new facility, which is being built by a commercial firm, is slated to become Italy’s largest covered stadium. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a potential future host of the ATP Finals tennis tournament.

In spite of the delays and concerns, high-priced tickets are already being sold for events at the Santagiulia venue. Tickets for the men’s gold medal final on 22 February – the final day of the Olympics – are priced at as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). This exceeds the price of any other athletic competition at the Milano Cortina Games. Only tickets for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.

The comeback of NHL players at the Olympics was revealed in February of last year, with the world’s top hockey league allowing its athletes to compete in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

Men's Olympic hockey tournament is set to run from 11-22 February. Women's event runs from 5-19 February.