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Forget about thin ice. Currently, there’s no ice.

With NHL players preparing to return to the Olympic Games for the initial occasion in more than a ten years, building work on the main hockey venue for the Milan-Cortina Games is cutting it close.

Officials announced on Wednesday that the main trial competition for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia arena that was scheduled for December has been moved to a more compact arena – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.

This situation raises the prospect that there might not be a game held in the main arena until the puck is dropped for the women’s preliminary round at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the opening ceremony.

“It’s going to be extremely tight to the start of the Olympics, the timeline is very tight. But we knew that,” Milano Cortina organizing body CEO Andrea Varnier said recently.

The event that was supposed to test the Santagiulia playing surface was part of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey location, which is being established inside a massive convention center on Milan’s outskirts and will host secondary matches during the Olympics.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the prior year to hosting podium competitions. And with a sizable hockey venue, it’s not just about the ice and making sure that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s additionally about checking concession stands, bathrooms and everything else inside a brand-new contemporary arena.

This new facility, which is being built by a commercial firm, is scheduled to become the nation's biggest covered stadium. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a potential future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.

Despite the postponements and worries, high-priced passes are already being sold for events at the Santagiulia arena. Seats for the men's championship game on 22 February – the closing day of the games – are going for as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). This exceeds for any other athletic competition at the Milano Cortina Games. Solely tickets for the inaugural and final events cost more.

The comeback of NHL players at the Olympics was revealed in February of last year, with the premier hockey organization allowing its players to compete in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

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