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Put aside poor conditions. For now, there’s no ice.

As NHL athletes preparing to return to the Olympics for the initial occasion in over a ten years, building work on the primary hockey venue for the Milano Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Local organizers announced on Wednesday that the main trial competition for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia arena that was scheduled for December has been moved to a smaller arena – and that no additional trial has been scheduled yet.

The issue creates the possibility that there might not be a match held in the primary venue until the competition begins for the women's initial games at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the inaugural event.

“The timeline will be extremely tight to the beginning of the Olympics, the schedule is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier stated in a recent update.

The competition that was intended to test the Santagiulia ice was a segment of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been transferred to the Rho Fair hockey location, which is being established inside a giant exhibition hall on the outskirts of Milan and will host secondary matches during the games.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the prior year to holding medal events. And with a large hockey arena, it’s not only about the playing surface and ensuring that the rink is prepared and safe. It’s additionally about testing food outlets, restrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed contemporary stadium.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being constructed by a private company, is scheduled to become Italy’s largest covered stadium. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible upcoming venue of the ATP Tour Finals tennis event.

In spite of the delays and concerns, expensive tickets are already being sold for events at the Santagiulia venue. Seats for the men's championship final on 22 February – the final day of the games – are priced at as much as €1,400 (over $1,600). That’s more than for any other sports event at the Milan-Cortina Games. Solely tickets for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.

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

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