Milan Hockey Venue Delays Could Leave NHL Players on Untested Playing Surface
Put aside thin ice. Currently, there’s no ice.
With NHL players gearing up to return to the Olympics for the first time in more than a decade, building work on the primary hockey arena for the Milan-Cortina Games is going down to the wire.
Officials confirmed on Wednesday that the main trial competition for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility that was scheduled for December has been moved to a smaller venue – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.
This situation creates the possibility that there may 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 – one day before the opening ceremony.
“The timeline will be extremely tight to the start of the Olympics, the schedule is highly compressed. But we knew that,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier stated in a recent update.
The competition that was supposed to evaluate the Santagiulia ice was a segment of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey location, which is being set up inside a massive convention center on Milan’s outskirts and will stage secondary matches during the games.
Typically, new Olympic venues are trialled at least the prior year to hosting podium competitions. And with a large hockey arena, it’s not only about the ice and ensuring that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s additionally about checking food outlets, bathrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed modern stadium.
The Santagiulia venue, which is being built by a commercial firm, is scheduled to become Italy’s largest indoor arena. For after the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a possible future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.
In spite of the delays and concerns, high-priced passes are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia arena. Seats for the men's championship game on 22 February – the closing day of the games – are going for as much as €1,400 (over $1,600). This exceeds for any other athletic competition at the Milan-Cortina Games. Solely passes for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.
The return of NHL stars at the Olympics was revealed last February, with the world’s top hockey organization allowing its athletes to participate in the Winter Games for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.
Men's Olympic hockey tournament is set to run from 11-22 February. Women's tournament runs from 5-19 February.
