Milano Ice Hockey Venue Delays Could Force NHL Players on Unproven Ice
Forget about poor conditions. Currently, there’s no ice.
With NHL players preparing to make a comeback to the Olympics for the first time in more than a ten years, building work on the primary hockey venue for the Milano Cortina Games is cutting it close.
Local organizers announced on Wednesday that the main test event for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been moved to a smaller arena – and that no new test event has been scheduled yet.
This situation creates the possibility that there might not be a game held in the main arena until the puck is dropped for the women's initial games at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the inaugural event.
“It’s going to be extremely tight to the start of the games, the timeline is very tight. But we knew that,” Milan-Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said recently.
The competition that was intended to test the Santagiulia ice was part of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey venue, which is being established inside a giant exhibition hall on the outskirts of Milan and will stage secondary matches during the Olympics.
Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the year before to holding medal events. And with a sizable hockey venue, it’s not only about the ice and ensuring that the rink is prepared and safe. It’s also about testing food outlets, restrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed modern stadium.
The Santagiulia venue, which is being constructed by a private company, is scheduled to become Italy’s biggest covered stadium. For after the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a potential future host of the ATP Finals tennis event.
Despite the postponements and worries, high-priced tickets are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia arena. Tickets for the men’s gold medal game on 22 February – the final day of the Olympics – are priced at as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). This exceeds for any other athletic competition at the Milan-Cortina Games. Only tickets for the inaugural and final events cost more.
The comeback of NHL stars at the Olympics was announced in February of last year, with the premier hockey organization permitting its athletes to compete in the Winter Games for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.
The men’s Olympic hockey competition is scheduled to take place from 11-22 February. Women's tournament occurs from 5-19 February.
