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

With NHL players gearing up to return to the Olympics for the first time in over a ten years, building work on the main hockey arena for the Milano Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Officials announced on Wednesday that the primary trial competition for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia arena originally planned for December has been relocated to a smaller venue – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.

The issue raises the prospect that there may not be a match 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 inaugural event.

“It’s going to be extremely tight to the beginning of the games, the timeline is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier stated in a recent update.

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

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

The Santagiulia venue, which is being constructed by a commercial firm, is slated to become Italy’s largest indoor arena. Following the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a potential future host of the ATP Finals tennis tournament.

Despite the delays and concerns, high-priced tickets are already being purchased for matches 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 athletic competition at the Milano Cortina Games. Solely passes for the opening and closing ceremonies are priced higher.

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

Men's Olympic hockey competition is scheduled to take place from 11-22 February. Women's tournament occurs from 5-19 February.