Completion of Olympic hockey arena is going down to the wire

There is no backup stadium if the main ice hockey arena for the Milan Cortina Winter Games is not ready on time.

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SANTAGIULIA Arena in Milan, Italy is in danger of not being completed on time.

(VINCENZO LOMBARDO Getty Images)

Construction on the arena that is set to welcome NHL players back to the Olympics for the first time in more than a decade is behind schedule and its completion is going right down to the wire.

A test event at the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena — the new, 16,000-seat venue on the outskirts of Milan — had to be moved, and new test events aren’t scheduled until Jan. 9-1.

“There is no plan B,” Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer for Milan Cortina, told the Associated Press on Saturday.

“So necessarily we have to be able to organize the competition in an impeccable manner at Santagiulia.”

The first scheduled Olympic hockey game at the arena is a women’s preliminary round match on Feb. 5, one day before the opening ceremony.

Usually, new Olympic venues are tested atleast the year before hosting medal events. And with a large hockey arena it’s not just about the ice and making sure the playing surface is ready and safe. It’s also about testing concession stands, bathrooms and everything else inside a brand new arena.

Francisi acknowledged there is “no precise date” for the venue to be handed over to local organizers, but he is confident “for the moment” that it will be ready for the Olympics.