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Forget about thin ice. For now, there’s no ice.

With NHL players preparing to return to the Olympic Games 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.

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

The issue creates the possibility that there may not be a game 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 inaugural event.

“It’s going to be very close to the start of the Olympics, the schedule is very tight. However, we were aware,” Milano Cortina organizing body CEO Andrea Varnier said recently.

The competition that was supposed to evaluate the Santagiulia ice was part of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey venue, which is being set up inside a massive exhibition hall on the outskirts of Milan and will host lesser games during the games.

Typically, new Olympic venues are tested at least the year before to hosting podium competitions. And with a sizable hockey venue, it’s not only about the playing surface and ensuring that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s also about testing concession stands, bathrooms and everything else inside a brand-new contemporary stadium.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being built by a private company, is slated to become Italy’s biggest covered stadium. For after the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a potential future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis event.

Despite the postponements and concerns, high-priced passes are already being sold for matches at the Santagiulia venue. Seats for the men's championship game 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 sports event at the Milan-Cortina Games. Solely tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies cost more.

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was announced last February, with the world’s top hockey organization permitting its players to compete in the Winter Games for the initial occasion since 2014 in Sochi.

Men's Olympic hockey competition is scheduled to run from 11-22 February. The women’s tournament runs from 5-19 February.