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

As NHL players gearing up to return to the Olympic Games for the initial occasion in more than a ten years, construction on the main hockey venue for the Milan-Cortina Games is cutting it close.

Officials confirmed on Wednesday that the primary trial competition for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been moved to a more compact venue – and that no new test event 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 initial games at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the opening ceremony.

“The timeline will be extremely tight to the beginning of the games, the schedule is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said recently.

The competition that was intended to test the Santagiulia ice was a segment of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been transferred to the Rho Fiera hockey venue, which is being established inside a giant convention center on the outskirts of Milan and will stage lesser games during the games.

Typically, new Olympic venues are tested at least the prior year to holding medal events. And with a sizable hockey arena, it’s not just about the ice and ensuring that the playing surface is ready and safe. It’s additionally about checking concession stands, bathrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed contemporary arena.

This new facility, which is being constructed by a commercial firm, is scheduled to become Italy’s largest indoor arena. For after 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 passes are already being sold for matches at the Santagiulia venue. Tickets for the men’s gold medal game on 22 February – the final day of the Olympics – are priced at as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). That’s more than the price of any other sports event at the Milan-Cortina Games. Only passes for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was announced in February of last year, with the world’s top hockey organization permitting its athletes to compete in the Winter Olympics for the initial occasion since 2014 in Sochi.

Men's Olympic hockey competition is scheduled to take place from 11-22 February. The women’s event runs from 5-19 February.