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Forget about thin ice. For now, there’s no ice.

As NHL players gearing up to make a comeback to the Olympic Games for the initial occasion in more than a ten years, building work on the main hockey venue for the Milan-Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Local organizers announced on Wednesday that the primary trial competition for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia facility that was scheduled for December has been moved to a more compact venue – and that no additional trial has been scheduled yet.

This situation raises the prospect 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 – one day before the inaugural event.

“The timeline will be very close to the start of the games, the schedule is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milan-Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said in a recent update.

The event that was intended to evaluate the Santagiulia playing surface was a segment of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been moved to the Rho Fiera hockey venue, which is being set up inside a giant exhibition hall on the outskirts of Milan and will host lesser games during the games.

Usually, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the year before to hosting podium competitions. And with a large hockey arena, it’s not just about the playing surface and ensuring that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s additionally about checking food outlets, restrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed contemporary arena.

This new facility, which is being constructed by a private company, is slated to become Italy’s biggest covered stadium. For after the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a potential upcoming venue of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.

In spite of the delays and concerns, expensive tickets are already being sold for events at the Santagiulia venue. Seats for the men’s gold medal final on 22 February – the closing day of the games – are going for as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). This exceeds the price of any other athletic competition at the Milano Cortina Games. Only passes for the inaugural and final events cost more.

The comeback of NHL stars at the Olympics was revealed last February, with the world’s top hockey league permitting its athletes to compete in the Winter Games for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

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