Winter Olympics chief insists ice hockey arena will be ready

The head of the 2026 Winter Olympics organising committee insisted Thursday that the Milan-Cortina Games’ main ice hockey arena will be finished in time, even though a key test date will be missed.

Andrea Varnier told reporters that he believes the Santa Giulia arena, which is still under construction to the east of Milan, will be ready for testing in January, less than a month before the opening ceremony on February 6.

Asked by AFP if the arena would be completed for the tournament, whose preliminary rounds start a day before the opening ceremony, Varnier said: “We have to.”

Further pressed what would happen should it not be finished in time, he replied: “It must be ready.” 

The arena was initially scheduled to be tested during the under-20 world championships over December 8-14 but it won’t be in ready in time, with that event being moved to the Games’ secondary ice hockey arena in Rho in the western suburbs of Milan.

Now testing will have to wait until January 9-11 when Italian league matches are scheduled to be held at the 16,000-capacity arena.

“It didn’t make sense to stress the venue of this stage for the world juniors that we can host easily in the hockey two arena (Rho) which will be ready for the date,” added Varnier.

“The Test event is not just to test the arena, it’s also to test the staff, the organisation, so it’s important to do a high-level competition, and that will happen in hockey two.

“And then in hockey one, in the beginning of January we’ll do the number of matches that are needed to test the ice, basically.”

Officially named the Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena, it is set to have a capacity of 16,000 and host the main ice hockey tournament as well as sharing the preliminary rounds with the Rho site.

“The test event is not just to test the arena, it’s also to test the staff, the organisation, so it’s important to do a high level,” added Varnier.

“And that will happen in hockey 2 and then in hockey 1 in the beginning of January we’ll do the number of matches that are needed to test the ice.”

The men’s ice hockey tournament runs from February 11-22, with the women’s tournament scheduled for February 5-19.

Hospitality packages for the men’s gold medal matches at the Santa Giulia arena are being sold for 2,350 euros.