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

With NHL players preparing to return to the Olympic Games for the initial occasion in over a decade, construction on the main hockey venue for the Milan-Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Local organizers confirmed on Wednesday that the primary trial competition for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been relocated to a smaller venue – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.

This situation raises the prospect that there may not be a match 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 very close to the start of the Olympics, the timeline is highly compressed. However, we were aware,” Milan-Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier said in a recent update.

The competition that was intended 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 location, which is being established inside a giant convention center on the outskirts of Milan and will host secondary matches during the games.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested 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 rink is ready and safe. It’s also about checking concession stands, bathrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed contemporary arena.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being constructed by a commercial firm, is slated to become the nation's largest indoor arena. For after the Olympics, it’s being considered as a possible future host of the ATP Finals tennis tournament.

Despite the postponements and worries, high-priced passes are already being purchased for events at the Santagiulia arena. Tickets for the men’s gold medal final on 22 February – the closing day of the games – are going for as much as €1,400 (over $1,600). This exceeds the price of any other athletic competition at the Milan-Cortina Games. Only tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies cost more.

The return of NHL players at the Olympics was announced in February of last year, with the premier hockey organization allowing its athletes to compete in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

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