As the countdown to the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics accelerates, organizers are confronting mounting pressure over the delayed Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena — and they’ve confirmed there is no fallback facility if the venue isn’t completed on time.
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The 16,000-seat arena, located just outside Milan, was expected to be well into operational testing by now. Instead, construction delays have forced organizers to postpone the initial test event, pushing it from late 2025 into early January. The revised testing dates are now scheduled for Jan. 9–11, leaving only weeks before Olympic athletes arrive.
“There is no plan B,” said Andrea Francisi, chief games operations officer for Milan Cortina, emphasizing the urgency during an interview with the Associated Press. “So necessarily we have to be able to organize the competition in an impeccable manner at Santagiulia.”
The arena is slated to host NHL players returning to Olympic competition for the first time in over a decade, placing additional spotlight on the venue's readiness. The first official Olympic game at Santagiulia is scheduled for Feb. 5 — a women’s preliminary round match — just one day before the opening ceremony.
While it’s common for Olympic organizers to test new venues well in advance, the tight turnaround for such a major site is unprecedented. These tests typically evaluate far more than ice quality; everything from crowd flow to concession operations, locker room logistics, and emergency systems must be fully vetted.
Francisi acknowledged that organizers still do not know exactly when the facility will be officially handed over. “There is no precise date” for the handoff, he said, though he added that construction teams are accelerating work across the site.
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“There are daily updates in the sense that our team is there working every day,” he said. “The companies which are involved with the building of the facility have sped up their work significantly.”
The organizing committee is working closely with construction teams to maintain momentum as the games approach. “We’re monitoring all that daily together with them, there’s great collaboration between us, we’re creating a coordinated plan between their work and our preparations and for the moment we’re healthily optimistic, but 100% we’ll do it.”
Despite the uncertainty, the Olympic hockey schedule remains unchanged.
The Santagiulia arena is key to both events, making its timely completion essential.
With the world watching — and NHL stars preparing to return to the Olympic stage — the pressure is on to deliver the venue with no margin for error.
Originally reported by Daniella Matar | The Associated Press in NBC 4 New York.
