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Forget about poor conditions. Currently, the surface isn't ready.

As NHL athletes gearing up to make a comeback to the Olympic Games 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 main test event for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been moved to a smaller venue – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.

This situation raises the prospect that there might 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.

“The timeline will be extremely tight to the beginning of the games, the timeline is very tight. However, we were aware,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier stated in a recent update.

The competition that was intended to evaluate the Santagiulia playing surface 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 exhibition hall on Milan’s outskirts and will stage secondary matches during the games.

Usually, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the prior year to holding podium competitions. And with a large hockey venue, it’s not just about the playing surface and making sure that the rink is ready and safe. It’s additionally about checking concession stands, restrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed contemporary stadium.

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

Despite the postponements and concerns, expensive tickets are already being sold for matches at the Santagiulia arena. Tickets for the men's championship game on 22 February – the closing day of the games – are priced at as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). That’s more than the price of any other sports event at the Milan-Cortina Games. Only passes for the opening and closing ceremonies are priced higher.

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was revealed last February, with the world’s top hockey league allowing its athletes to compete in the Winter Games for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

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