Hole in the Ice, but NHL Gives Cautious Green Light to Milan’s New Olympic Hockey Arena

Midway through Friday night’s opening game at Milan’s new Olympic ice hockey venue, officials halted play as workers converged on a jagged patch near the boards. In a building still ringed by exposed concrete and plastic sheeting, staff carried out a watering can to help repair the ice as players skated away and images spread quickly on social media.

By Sunday night, however, all seven scheduled games had been played. On Monday, the National Hockey League and its players’ union delivered the verdict organizers had been waiting for.

In a joint statement issued Jan. 12, the NHL and NHL Players’ Association said they were “pleased” with the three-day test event and called it “a good trial run” that provided “important insight into the current status” of the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, which is slated to host the medal rounds of the men’s and women’s hockey tournaments at the 2026 Milano–Cortina Winter Games.

The statement acknowledged “some issues, including a hole in the ice” during the opening game, but said the league and union viewed those problems as “challenges inherent with new ice and a still-under-construction venue.” It added that they “expect that the work necessary to address all remaining issues will continue around the clock” ahead of the Olympics.

The carefully calibrated language eased the most immediate concern hanging over Olympic hockey: whether the NHL would actually send its players to Italy for the first time since the 2014 Sochi Games.

A crucial test for Milan — and for Olympic hockey

From Friday, Jan. 9, through Sunday, Jan. 11, Santagiulia hosted the “Milano Hockey Finals,” combining the Italian Cup semifinals and final with the IHL Serie A Final Four, including a bronze-medal game and the championship that decided Italy’s 92nd national title.

Seven games were played over three days, with one on Friday, three on Saturday and three on Sunday. Organizers limited attendance to roughly 4,000 spectators per day while construction continues inside and around the venue, although long-term plans call for a capacity of more than 15,000.

The tournament was designed to mimic Olympic conditions: multiple games each day, quick turnarounds and full game operations under the scrutiny of international officials, including representatives of the NHL, NHLPA, International Ice Hockey Federation and International Olympic Committee.

Andrea Francisi, chief games operations officer for the Milano–Cortina organizing committee, said before the puck dropped that the weekend would “test exactly the days as they will be in the Olympics,” with three games stacked on the same sheet.

The scene inside the new arena underscored how tight the timeline remains. Photos and videos posted by players and local media showed unfinished concourses, bare concrete and temporary locker-room setups. One Italian player described the building as “still a construction site.”

But the focus of visiting officials was the ice. After the opening-night scare, when play in the SV Kaltern–HCMV Varese game was interrupted to repair a hole, players and ice technicians said conditions improved steadily.

Defenseman Florian Wieser, whose social media images of the arena drew wide attention, later said the damaged patch was “a small hole” that was fixed in about five minutes and added he was surprised by how good the ice felt overall for a first event at a new rink.

Don Moffatt, the veteran ice technician from the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche who is overseeing the surface at Santagiulia, told organizers that such problems are typical when a new sheet is used under game conditions for the first time.

IIHF President Luc Tardif pointed to Sunday’s tripleheader as the key measure.

“You always look at the third period of the third game of the day,” Tardif said. “The ice held up, and we leave happy and confident.”

NHL keeps pressure on, but steps back from the brink

The NHL has already agreed in principle to allow its players to participate in the 2026 and 2030 Winter Games, after skipping Pyeongchang 2018 over financial and scheduling concerns and withdrawing from Beijing 2022 because of pandemic-related disruptions.

That agreement, reached with the IIHF and NHLPA in 2024 and finalized in 2025, paved the way for what would be the first “best-on-best” men’s Olympic tournament in 12 years. But league officials made clear in recent months that venue readiness remained a condition.

In December, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly warned that the league would not send its players if the ice at the Milan arena was not deemed safe.

Asked about the test event on Jan. 12 in Buffalo, New York, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the weekend “went OK” based on the league’s information, while stressing that work remains.

“There are still challenges because the building is still under construction and the ice is new,” Bettman said. He described the NHL as “an invited guest” at the Olympics but noted that the league has “offered to help and consult and advise because we have a little bit of expertise in that area.”

The joint statement issued later that day repeated that the NHL and NHLPA would “continue to monitor the situation” and “stand ready to consult and advise” the Milano–Cortina organizers, IOC and IIHF “to ensure they deliver a tournament and playing conditions befitting the world’s best players.”

The wording keeps pressure on Italian organizers to accelerate work through January, even as it signals that, barring a serious setback, the league’s players will be in Milan next month.

Organizers, IOC project confidence despite delays

For local organizers and the IOC, the test weekend was as much about optics as operations.

The Santagiulia project, also known as Milano Santagiulia or simply “Hockey 1,” has faced repeated delays. An IIHF under-20 Division I-B world championship scheduled for December 2025 was moved to the Milano Rho Arena when the new building was not ready, and a planned early test event was postponed.

Those problems led to public assurances from Italian officials in late 2025 that there was “no plan B” for Olympic hockey. Some critics saw that phrase as a gamble, given the number of unfinished elements at the site.

Francisi has repeatedly rejected any suggestion that NHL participation could be jeopardized. Asked how confident he was that NHL players would compete in Milan despite the construction schedule, he replied, “One hundred percent, 100%.”

IOC sports director Pierre Ducrey has taken a similar line. He said there was “no chance at all” the arena would fail to be ready for competition and that the IOC knew what condition the building would be in at this point in the preparation.

“What we are seeing matches our expectations,” Ducrey said, adding that “a lot more progress” is expected before the Games.

The NHL and IIHF have also addressed questions about the rink’s dimensions. Santagiulia’s ice surface is slightly shorter than standard NHL size but matches IIHF regulations and the measurements used in Beijing in 2022. All sides have said the difference is insignificant for player safety and style of play.

A venue under the clock, a tournament back on track

The Milano–Cortina Winter Games run from Feb. 6 to 22. The women’s hockey tournament is scheduled for Feb. 5 to 19, with the men’s event from Feb. 11 to 22. Santagiulia is set to host most men’s games, including both semifinals and the gold- and bronze-medal contests, as well as selected women’s matches. The Rho arena will serve as the secondary venue.

In total, 32 hockey games are planned across both tournaments. For the NHL and its players, those two weeks represent a showcase that has been missing from the sport since Sochi, one that will feature national teams built almost entirely from NHL rosters.

For Milan, Santagiulia is intended as a long-term asset: a multipurpose arena in a redeveloping district in the city’s southeast, built to attract major concerts and events long after the Olympic flame is extinguished.

In the shorter term, the test event has given all sides a clearer picture of what remains to be done. Workers continue to race to finish seating sections, hospitality areas, permanent locker rooms and the exterior of the arena. Officials from the NHL, IIHF and organizing committee are expected to remain in close contact as the Games approach.

The image of workers tending to a hole in fresh ice with a watering can on opening night offered a vivid snapshot of how fine the margins can be for modern Olympic preparations. For now, the more consequential image may be the joint NHL–NHLPA statement that followed: a cautious but affirmative signal that, if the promised work gets done, the world’s best hockey players will be on the ice in Milan when the Games begin.