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Put aside poor conditions. Currently, there’s no ice.

As NHL players gearing up to make a comeback to the Olympic Games for the first time in more than a ten years, construction on the main hockey venue for the Milano Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Local organizers announced on Wednesday that the main test event for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia arena that was scheduled for December has been moved to a smaller arena – and that no additional trial has been scheduled yet.

This situation creates the possibility that there might not be a game held in the primary venue until the competition begins for the women’s preliminary round at the Olympics on 5 February – one day before the inaugural event.

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

The competition that was intended to evaluate the Santagiulia playing surface was part of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey venue, which is being established inside a giant exhibition hall on the outskirts of Milan and will host secondary matches during the Olympics.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the prior year to hosting podium competitions. And with a large hockey venue, it’s not just about the playing surface and making sure that the playing surface is ready and safe. It’s additionally about testing concession stands, 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 biggest covered stadium. Following the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a potential future host of the ATP Finals tennis event.

In spite of the postponements and worries, high-priced tickets are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia venue. Seats for the men’s gold medal game on 22 February – the closing day of the Olympics – are going for as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). This exceeds the price of any other sports event at the Milano Cortina Games. Only tickets for the inaugural and final events cost more.

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

Men's Olympic hockey competition is set to run from 11-22 February. The women’s tournament occurs from 5-19 February.