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Forget about thin ice. For now, the surface isn't ready.

With NHL athletes preparing to return to the Olympics for the first time in over a decade, construction on the main hockey arena for the Milano Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Officials announced on Wednesday that the main test event for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been relocated to a smaller arena – 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 inaugural event.

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

The event that was intended to evaluate the Santagiulia ice was a segment of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey location, which is being set up inside a massive convention center on Milan’s outskirts and will stage lesser games during the games.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the prior year to hosting medal events. And with a large hockey venue, it’s not only about the ice and ensuring that the playing surface is ready and secure. It’s additionally about checking food outlets, restrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed modern stadium.

This new facility, which is being built by a commercial firm, is scheduled to become Italy’s biggest covered stadium. For after the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible upcoming venue of the ATP Finals tennis tournament.

In spite of the postponements and concerns, expensive tickets are already being sold 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). This exceeds for any other sports event at the Milan-Cortina Games. Solely passes for the inaugural and final events cost more.

The comeback of NHL stars at the Olympics was announced last February, with the world’s top hockey organization permitting its athletes 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. Women's event occurs from 5-19 February.