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Forget about poor conditions. For now, there’s no ice.

As NHL players gearing up to return to the Olympics for the first time in more than a decade, building work on the main hockey arena for the Milan-Cortina Games is cutting it close.

Officials confirmed on Wednesday that the primary test event for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been moved to a smaller arena – and that no new test event has been arranged yet.

This situation creates the possibility that there may not be a match held in the primary venue until the competition begins for the women’s preliminary round at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the inaugural event.

“The timeline will be very close to the start of the Olympics, the schedule is very tight. But we knew that,” Milan-Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier stated recently.

The event that was supposed to evaluate the Santagiulia playing surface was a segment of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been transferred to the Rho Fair hockey venue, which is being established inside a massive exhibition hall on Milan’s outskirts and will stage secondary matches during the Olympics.

Usually, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the year before to holding podium competitions. And with a sizable hockey venue, it’s not only about the playing surface and ensuring that the playing surface is ready and secure. It’s additionally about testing food outlets, bathrooms and everything else inside a brand-new modern arena.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being built by a commercial firm, is slated to become the nation's largest covered stadium. For after the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.

Despite the delays and worries, high-priced passes are already being purchased 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). That’s more than for any other athletic competition at the Milan-Cortina Games. Only tickets for the inaugural and final events 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 compete 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. The women’s tournament occurs from 5-19 February.