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 going down to the wire.
A test event 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 is a women's preliminary round match on 5 February, one day before the opening ceremony. Typically, new venues are tested at least a year in advance. Francisi admitted there is “no precise date” for the handover but expressed confidence it will be ready. “We’re healthily optimistic, but 100% we’ll do it,” he said.
The men's tournament runs from 11-22 February, while the women's tournament is scheduled from 5-19 February. The arena is set to welcome NHL players back to the Olympics for the first time in over a decade.
