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

As NHL players gearing up to make a comeback to the Olympics for the first time in over a ten years, building work on the primary hockey arena for the Milan-Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Officials confirmed on Wednesday that the primary trial competition for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been moved to a more compact venue – and that no new test event has been scheduled yet.

This situation creates the possibility that there might not be a match 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 opening ceremony.

“The timeline will be very close to the beginning of the games, the timeline is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milan-Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier stated recently.

The competition that was intended to evaluate the Santagiulia ice was a segment of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been transferred to the Rho Fair hockey venue, which is being established inside a giant exhibition hall on Milan’s outskirts and will stage lesser games during the Olympics.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the prior year to holding medal events. And with a large hockey venue, it’s not only about the ice and making sure that the playing surface is ready and safe. It’s additionally about testing 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 indoor arena. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.

In spite of the postponements and worries, high-priced passes are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia venue. Seats for the men's championship final on 22 February – the final day of the games – are going for as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). That’s more than the price of any other sports event at the Milan-Cortina Games. Solely passes 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 league allowing its players to compete in the Winter Olympics for the initial occasion since 2014 in Sochi.

Men's Olympic hockey tournament is set to take place from 11-22 February. The women’s event runs from 5-19 February.