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Put aside thin ice. Currently, the surface isn't ready.

As NHL athletes gearing up to return to the Olympic Games for the initial occasion in over a ten years, building work on the main hockey arena for the Milano Cortina Games is cutting it close.

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

The issue creates the possibility that there might not be a match held in the main arena until the puck is dropped 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 Olympics, the timeline is highly compressed. But we knew that,” Milano Cortina organizing body CEO Andrea Varnier stated recently.

The competition that was supposed to test the Santagiulia ice was part of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey venue, which is being established inside a giant exhibition hall on Milan’s outskirts and will host secondary matches during the games.

Usually, new Olympic venues are tested at least the prior year to hosting podium competitions. And with a large hockey arena, it’s not only about the playing surface and making sure that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s additionally about testing food outlets, bathrooms and all other amenities inside a brand-new contemporary stadium.

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

In spite of the delays and worries, expensive tickets are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia arena. Tickets for the men’s gold medal game on 22 February – the closing day of the Olympics – are priced at as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). This exceeds the price of any other athletic competition at the Milan-Cortina Games. Only passes for the inaugural and final events cost more.

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was announced last February, with the world’s top hockey league allowing its players 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.