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Put aside poor conditions. For now, there’s no ice.

As NHL athletes preparing to make a comeback to the Olympics for the first time in more than a decade, building work on the main hockey venue for the Milano Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Local organizers confirmed on Wednesday that the primary trial competition for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia arena that was scheduled for December has been relocated to a more compact arena – and that no new test event has been arranged yet.

The issue raises the prospect 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 – 24 hours before the inaugural event.

“The timeline will be extremely tight to the beginning of the games, the timeline is very tight. However, we were aware,” Milan-Cortina organizing body CEO Andrea Varnier said in a recent update.

The event that was supposed to test the Santagiulia playing surface was part of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been moved to the Rho Fiera hockey venue, which is being established inside a massive convention center on Milan’s outskirts and will stage secondary matches during the Olympics.

Usually, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the year before to holding podium competitions. And with a large hockey arena, it’s not only about the playing surface and making sure that the rink is ready and secure. It’s also about testing food outlets, bathrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed contemporary stadium.

This new facility, which is being built by a commercial firm, is scheduled to become Italy’s largest covered stadium. For after the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a potential future host of the ATP Finals tennis tournament.

Despite the delays and worries, high-priced passes are already being sold for matches at the Santagiulia venue. Tickets for the men's championship game on 22 February – the closing day of the games – are priced at as much as €1,400 (over $1,600). That’s more than for any other sports event at the Milan-Cortina Games. Only tickets for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.

The comeback of NHL stars at the Olympics was revealed in February of last year, with the premier hockey organization allowing its players to compete in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

Men's Olympic hockey tournament is set to take place from 11-22 February. Women's tournament runs from 5-19 February.