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Put aside thin ice. Currently, there’s no ice.

With NHL athletes gearing up to make a comeback to the Olympic Games for the initial occasion in more than a ten years, building work on the primary hockey venue for the Milan-Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Local organizers announced on Wednesday that the main test event for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been moved to a smaller venue – and that no new test event has been arranged yet.

The issue creates the possibility that there might not be a game 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 opening ceremony.

“It’s going to be extremely tight to the start of the games, the timeline is very tight. But we knew that,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said in a recent update.

The competition that was supposed to evaluate the Santagiulia ice was part of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey venue, which is being set up inside a massive convention center on Milan’s outskirts and will stage lesser games during the games.

Usually, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the prior year to holding medal events. And with a large hockey venue, it’s not just about the playing surface and making sure that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s also about testing concession stands, restrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed modern arena.

This new facility, which is being constructed by a commercial firm, is slated to become Italy’s biggest indoor arena. For after the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a potential future host of the ATP Finals tennis tournament.

In spite of the delays and concerns, high-priced tickets are already being purchased 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 sports event at the Milan-Cortina Games. Solely passes for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was announced in February of last year, with the premier hockey league allowing its athletes to participate in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

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