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Put aside thin ice. Currently, there’s no ice.

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

Local organizers announced on Wednesday that the primary test event for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia arena originally planned for December has been moved to a more compact arena – and that no new test event has been scheduled yet.

This situation creates the possibility that there may not be a game held in the main arena until the competition begins for the women’s preliminary round at the Olympics on 5 February – one day before the opening ceremony.

“The timeline will be very close to the beginning of the games, the schedule is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said in a recent update.

The competition that was supposed to test the Santagiulia ice was a segment 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 Milan’s outskirts and will host lesser games during the Olympics.

Usually, new Olympic venues are tested at least the year before to hosting podium competitions. And with a sizable hockey arena, it’s not just about the playing surface and making sure that the rink is ready and secure. It’s also about testing concession stands, bathrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed modern stadium.

This new facility, which is being built by a commercial firm, is scheduled to become the nation's biggest covered stadium. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a potential future host of the ATP Finals tennis event.

In spite of the delays and concerns, expensive tickets are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia arena. 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 the price of any other sports event at the Milano Cortina Games. Solely tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies are priced higher.

The comeback of NHL players at the Olympics was announced last February, with the premier hockey league permitting its athletes to participate in the Winter Games for the initial occasion since 2014 in Sochi.

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