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

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

Officials confirmed on Wednesday that the primary test event for the 16,000-capacity Santagiulia arena that was scheduled for December has been moved to a more compact venue – and that no additional trial has been arranged yet.

The issue raises the prospect 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 – 24 hours before the inaugural event.

“The timeline will be extremely tight to the beginning of the games, 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 supposed to test the Santagiulia ice was a segment of the U20 world championship from 8-14 December. This tournament has been transferred to the Rho Fiera hockey venue, which is being established inside a massive exhibition hall on Milan’s outskirts and will host lesser games during the games.

Typically, freshly built Olympic facilities are trialled at least the year before to hosting medal events. And with a large hockey arena, it’s not only about the ice and making sure that the rink is ready and secure. It’s also about checking concession stands, bathrooms and everything else inside a newly constructed modern stadium.

The Santagiulia venue, which is being constructed by a private company, is scheduled to become the nation's largest covered stadium. For after the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a possible upcoming venue of the ATP Tour Finals tennis event.

Despite the delays and worries, high-priced tickets are already being sold for matches at the Santagiulia venue. Tickets for the men’s gold medal game on 22 February – the final day of the Olympics – are priced at as much as €1,400 (more than $1,600). This exceeds for any other sports event at the Milan-Cortina Games. Solely tickets for the inaugural and final events are priced higher.

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

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