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Put aside poor conditions. For now, the surface isn't ready.

With NHL players preparing to make a comeback to the Olympic Games for the initial occasion in over a decade, building work on the primary hockey arena 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 facility that was scheduled for December has been relocated to a smaller venue – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.

This situation creates the possibility that there might not be a game held in the primary venue until the puck is dropped 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 start of the games, the timeline is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milano Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said recently.

The event that was supposed to evaluate the Santagiulia playing surface was a segment of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey location, which is being set up inside a giant convention center on Milan’s outskirts and will host lesser games during the Olympics.

Typically, new Olympic venues are trialled at least the year before to holding podium competitions. And with a large hockey arena, it’s not just about the ice and making sure that the playing surface is prepared and secure. It’s also about testing concession stands, restrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed modern arena.

This new facility, which is being constructed by a private company, is scheduled to become Italy’s largest indoor arena. Following the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible future host of the ATP Tour Finals tennis event.

Despite the delays and worries, expensive tickets are already being sold for matches at the Santagiulia venue. Tickets 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 for any other athletic competition at the Milan-Cortina Games. Solely passes for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.

The return of NHL stars at the Olympics was revealed last February, with the world’s top hockey league allowing its players to participate in the Winter Games for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

Men's Olympic hockey tournament is set to take place from 11-22 February. Women's event occurs from 5-19 February.