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

As NHL athletes preparing to return to the Olympic Games for the first time in more than a ten years, building work on the main hockey arena for the Milan-Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Local organizers announced on Wednesday that the main trial competition for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been relocated to a smaller arena – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.

The issue raises the prospect that there might not be a match held in the main arena until the competition begins for the women’s preliminary round at the Olympics on 5 February – one day before the opening ceremony.

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

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 Fiera hockey venue, which is being set up inside a massive convention center on the outskirts of Milan and will stage lesser games during the games.

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 playing surface and ensuring that the rink is prepared and safe. It’s also about checking food outlets, bathrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed contemporary stadium.

This new facility, which is being constructed by a private company, is slated to become Italy’s biggest indoor arena. For after the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a possible future host of the ATP Finals tennis tournament.

Despite the postponements and concerns, expensive passes are already being sold for events at the Santagiulia venue. Tickets for the men's championship final 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 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 organization allowing its players to compete in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

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