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Put aside poor conditions. For now, there’s no ice.

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

Local organizers announced on Wednesday that the main trial competition for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia arena that was scheduled for December has been relocated to a more compact arena – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.

The issue raises the prospect that there might not be a game held in the primary venue until the competition begins for the women's initial games at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the opening ceremony.

“It’s going to be extremely tight to the beginning of the games, the schedule is highly compressed. But we knew that,” Milan-Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said recently.

The competition that was intended to evaluate the Santagiulia ice was a segment of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been transferred to the Rho Fair hockey venue, which is being set up inside a massive exhibition hall on the outskirts of Milan and will host lesser games during the Olympics.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the prior year to hosting medal events. And with a large hockey arena, it’s not only about the ice and making sure that the rink is prepared and safe. It’s also about checking food outlets, bathrooms and everything else inside a brand-new modern arena.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being built by a commercial firm, is scheduled to become Italy’s biggest indoor arena. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a potential upcoming venue of the ATP Tour Finals tennis event.

Despite the postponements and concerns, high-priced tickets are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia venue. Tickets for the men's championship final on 22 February – the final day of the Olympics – are priced at as much as €1,400 (over $1,600). That’s more than for any other athletic competition at the Milano Cortina Games. Only passes for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.

The comeback of NHL stars at the Olympics was announced in February of last year, with the world’s top hockey league allowing its players to participate in the Winter Games for the initial occasion since 2014 in Sochi.

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