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

As NHL players gearing up to return to the Olympic Games for the first time in over a ten years, building work on the main hockey venue for the Milano Cortina Games is cutting it close.

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

This situation raises the prospect that there might not be a game held in the main arena until the puck is dropped 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 beginning of the games, the timeline is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milan-Cortina organizing body CEO Andrea Varnier stated in a recent update.

The event that was intended to evaluate the Santagiulia playing surface was part of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been transferred to the Rho Fiera hockey location, which is being established inside a giant convention center on the outskirts of Milan and will host lesser games during the Olympics.

Typically, new Olympic venues are tested at least the year before to holding podium competitions. And with a sizable hockey venue, it’s not only about the ice and making sure that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s also about checking food outlets, restrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed contemporary stadium.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being constructed by a commercial firm, is scheduled to become Italy’s biggest covered stadium. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament.

In spite of the delays and worries, expensive tickets are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia venue. Seats for the men's championship final on 22 February – the final day of the Olympics – are going for as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). That’s more than the price of any other athletic competition at the Milano Cortina Games. Only passes for the opening and closing ceremonies are priced higher.

The comeback of NHL stars at the Olympics was announced last February, with the world’s top hockey organization permitting its players to participate in the Winter Games for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

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