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Put aside thin ice. For now, there’s no ice.

As NHL athletes gearing up to return to the Olympic Games for the initial occasion in more than a ten years, building work on the main hockey venue for the Milano Cortina Games is cutting it close.

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

The issue raises the prospect that there may not be a match held in the main arena until the competition begins for the women's initial games at the Olympics on 5 February – one day before the opening ceremony.

“It’s going to be extremely tight to the start of the Olympics, the timeline is highly compressed. But we knew that,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said in a recent update.

The event that was supposed to test the Santagiulia ice was part of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey location, which is being set up inside a massive exhibition hall on the outskirts of Milan and will stage lesser games during the games.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the prior year to holding medal events. And with a large hockey venue, it’s not just about the playing surface and making sure that the rink is prepared and secure. It’s also about checking concession stands, restrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed modern stadium.

This new facility, which is being built by a private company, is scheduled to become Italy’s biggest covered stadium. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a potential upcoming venue of the ATP Finals tennis event.

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

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was announced last February, with the world’s top hockey league allowing its athletes to participate 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. The women’s event runs from 5-19 February.