Put aside thin ice. For now, the surface isn't ready.
As NHL players gearing up to return to the Olympic Games for the first time in more than a ten years, construction on the primary hockey arena for the Milan-Cortina Games is going down to the wire.
Officials confirmed on Wednesday that the main trial competition for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility that was scheduled for December has been moved to a more compact venue – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.
The issue raises the prospect that there may 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 – one day 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 local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said in a recent update.
The competition that was intended to test the Santagiulia playing surface was a segment of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been moved to the Rho Fiera hockey venue, which is being established inside a massive convention center on the outskirts of Milan and will stage lesser games during the games.
Usually, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the year before to holding medal events. And with a sizable hockey arena, it’s not only about the playing surface and making sure that the playing surface is prepared and safe. It’s also about testing food outlets, bathrooms and everything else inside a brand-new modern stadium.
This new facility, which is being built by a commercial firm, is slated to become Italy’s largest indoor arena. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible upcoming venue of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.
Despite the delays and worries, expensive tickets are already being sold for matches at the Santagiulia venue. Tickets for the men’s gold medal final on 22 February – the closing day of the games – are priced at as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). This exceeds for any other sports event at the Milano Cortina Games. Solely 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 players to participate in the Winter Games for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.
The men’s Olympic hockey competition is scheduled to take place from 11-22 February. Women's event occurs from 5-19 February.
