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

As NHL players gearing up to return to the Olympics for the first time in more than a ten years, construction on the primary hockey venue for the Milano Cortina Games is going down to the wire.

Officials confirmed on Wednesday that the main test event for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia facility originally planned for December has been moved to a more compact venue – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.

The issue creates the possibility that there might not be a game held in the main arena until the puck is dropped for the women’s preliminary round at the Olympics on 5 February – one day before the inaugural event.

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

The competition that was intended to test the Santagiulia playing surface was part of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey venue, which is being established inside a massive convention center on Milan’s outskirts and will stage secondary matches during the games.

Usually, freshly built Olympic facilities are tested at least the year before to hosting medal events. 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 additionally about testing food outlets, bathrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed modern stadium.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being constructed by a commercial firm, is scheduled to become the nation's biggest covered stadium. Following the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a possible future host of the ATP Finals tennis event.

Despite the delays and concerns, high-priced tickets are already being sold for events at the Santagiulia venue. Seats 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). This exceeds the price of any other athletic competition at the Milan-Cortina Games. Only tickets 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 premier hockey organization permitting its athletes to compete in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

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