Organisers of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics have admitted there is no alternative venue if the main ice hockey arena is not completed on time. The Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, a new 16,000-seat stadium on the outskirts of Milan, is behind schedule, with construction expected to go down to the wire.
A test event at the arena had to be relocated, and new test events are not scheduled until 9-11 January, just weeks before the Games. Andrea Francisi, chief games operations officer for Milan Cortina, told the Associated Press on Saturday: “There is no plan B. So necessarily we have to be able to organise the competition in an impeccable manner at Santagiulia.”
The first Olympic hockey game at the venue is a women's preliminary round match on 5 February, one day before the opening ceremony. Typically, new Olympic venues are tested at least a year in advance, but Francisi acknowledged there is “no precise date” for the handover to local organisers. He added that daily updates are being provided and that construction companies have accelerated their work.
“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,” Francisi said. The men's hockey tournament runs from 11-22 February, and the women's from 5-19 February.
