Milano Ice Hockey Venue Delays Could Force NHL Players on Unproven Playing Surface

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

With NHL athletes gearing up to return to the Olympics for the first time in over a ten years, building work on the main hockey venue for the Milan-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 relocated to a more compact venue – and that no additional trial has been scheduled yet.

This situation creates the possibility that there might not be a game held in the primary venue until the puck is dropped for the women’s preliminary round at the Olympics on 5 February – one day 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 local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said recently.

The competition that was supposed to evaluate the Santagiulia ice was part of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been transferred to the Rho Fair hockey location, which is being established inside a giant convention center on Milan’s outskirts and will host lesser games during the games.

Typically, new Olympic venues are trialled at least the prior year to hosting medal events. And with a large hockey arena, it’s not only about the playing surface and making sure that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s additionally about checking concession stands, bathrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed modern arena.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being constructed by a private company, is scheduled to become the nation's biggest covered stadium. Following the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a possible future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis event.

In spite of the delays and worries, high-priced tickets are already being sold for events at the Santagiulia arena. Tickets for the men’s gold medal final on 22 February – the final day of the games – 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 opening and closing ceremonies cost more.

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was revealed last February, with the world’s top hockey organization permitting its players to participate in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

The men’s Olympic hockey tournament is scheduled to run from 11-22 February. Women's event runs from 5-19 February.