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Put aside poor conditions. Currently, 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, construction on the main hockey arena for the Milano Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Officials confirmed on Wednesday that the primary test event for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been relocated to a more compact arena – and that no new test event has been arranged yet.

This situation raises the prospect that there might not be a match held in the main arena until the competition begins for the women's initial games at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the inaugural event.

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

The event that was supposed to test 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 Fair hockey location, which is being established inside a massive exhibition hall on Milan’s outskirts and will stage lesser games during the games.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the year before to hosting medal events. And with a large hockey venue, it’s not just about the playing surface and ensuring that the playing surface is prepared and safe. It’s also about checking food outlets, bathrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed modern arena.

This new facility, which is being constructed by a commercial firm, is scheduled to become the nation's biggest indoor arena. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a potential future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.

In spite of the delays and worries, expensive passes are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia venue. Seats for the men's championship game on 22 February – the closing 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 Milan-Cortina Games. Solely tickets for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.

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

Men's Olympic hockey competition is scheduled to run from 11-22 February. Women's event occurs from 5-19 February.