Forget about poor conditions. For now, there’s no ice.
With NHL athletes preparing to return to the Olympics for the first time in more than a ten years, building work on the main hockey arena for the Milan-Cortina Games is cutting it close.
Local organizers confirmed on Wednesday that the main test event for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been moved to a more compact arena – and that no additional trial has been scheduled yet.
This situation creates the possibility that there might not be a match held in the main arena until the puck is dropped for the women’s preliminary round at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the inaugural event.
“The timeline will be extremely tight to the beginning of the games, the timeline is highly compressed. But we knew that,” Milan-Cortina organizing body CEO Andrea Varnier stated in a recent update.
The event that was intended to evaluate the Santagiulia playing surface was a segment of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been transferred to the Rho Fair hockey venue, which is being established inside a massive 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 podium competitions. And with a large hockey arena, it’s not just about the ice and making sure that the playing surface is ready and secure. It’s additionally about checking concession stands, bathrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed contemporary stadium.
The Santagiulia venue, which is being built by a private company, is slated to become Italy’s largest indoor arena. For after the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible upcoming venue of the ATP Finals tennis tournament.
Despite the postponements and concerns, high-priced passes are already being purchased for matches at the Santagiulia arena. Tickets for the men's championship final on 22 February – the closing day of the games – are priced at as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). This exceeds the price of any other sports event at the Milan-Cortina Games. Only tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies are priced higher.
The return of NHL stars 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.
The men’s Olympic hockey tournament is scheduled to run from 11-22 February. Women's tournament runs from 5-19 February.
