With About Two Months Until the Olympics, Crews Are Racing Against the Clock to Finish the Hockey Rink

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo are less than two months away, and new reports are emerging that the main hockey rink may not be ready in time. The Palaitalia Arena at Santa Giulia is this Games’s only new venue, with organizers focusing on using existing venues in both Milan and Cortina-d’Ampezzo, a ski resort at the foot of the Italian Dolomites about five hours away from Milan’s city center[i] that hosted the Winter Olympics back in 1956.[ii] The new arena is set to hold around 16,000 spectators[iii], making it the largest indoor venue in the city once completed.[iv]

 

Usually Olympic venues, such as the Palaitalia Arena, are tested about a year before the Games begin to make sure the playing surface is up to standard and other operations, such as concessions, run smoothly. [v] There was supposed to be a test event at the arena this month, but with construction behind schedule, the event had to be moved and new test events are not scheduled until the second week in January.

 

Typically Olympic hockey games are played on a shorter surface than NHL games, with Olympic hockey rinks measuring 197 feet long by 98.5 feet wide, while NHL rinks measure 200 feet long by 85 feet wide.[vi] That being said, in Beijing 2022 and Vancouver 2010, teams played on NHL-sized rinks, and are supposed to do so again in Milan. However, according to the Team Canada’s assistant hockey coach Peter DeBoer, the rink may end up being about three to four feet shorter than an NHL rink.[vii]

 

Ice hockey is set to be the most highly anticipated event of the games, especially since NHL players will be playing in the tournament for the first time since the 2014 Sochi Olympics.[viii] Therefore it is understandable that NHL teams are concerned over the progress of the rink, as they would not want their multi-million dollar players playing on unsafe ice, risking injury in the middle of the NHL season. According to the NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettmann, the NHL has received assurances from the IOC and the International Ice Hockey Federation that the event will be ready in time, and a contingent of NHL executives supposedly made a trip to Milan after the recent NHL Global Series in Sweden.[ix]

 

There has been no word from the NHL on the conditions of the ice rink yet and the NHL and NHLPA have agreed to not comment publicly on the situation until after Christmas so as to not add fuel to the fire. This gives the organizing committee about a month to finish the arena or find an alternative site.[x] Alternative sites that have been suggested are the Rho Fiera Milano arena, which is being planned as a secondary hockey site to the Palaitalia Arena[xi], or an existing arena in Lugano, Switzerland, only an hour from Milan. The Rho arena is a temporary structure inside a convention center that will be used for hockey and speed skating and is less than half the size of the planned Palaitalia Arena. Speedskaters have complained that the ice is not ready, saying that it feels like “skating on a lake” after a Junior World Cup event took place there only a week ago.[xii] Many of the other existing ice arena venues in northern Italy are already hosting other skating events, therefore time is of the essence for organizers to finish the arena before the January test events or find an alternate site before the first puck drop on February 5^th (it is worth noting that the men’s tournament does not kick off until February 11^th, so it will be the women’s teams that will be the most affected if there are any last minute changes). [xiii]

[i] https://www.nbclosangeles.com/olympics/2026-milan-cortina/behind-scenes-cortinas-trailer-park-olympic-village-400-mobile-homes-alpine-valley/3809912/

[ii] https://www.olympics.com/ioc/olympic-legacy/100-years-winter-legacy

[iii] https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/olympic-hockey-arena-no-backup-plan-milan-9.6997684

[iv] https://www.iihf.com/en/news/13253/2026-olympics-in-milan-cortina

[v] https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/olympic-hockey-arena-no-backup-plan-milan-9.6997684

[vi] https://www.olympics.com/en/news/olympic-ice-hockey-nhl-rules-difference

[vii] https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/olympic-hockey-ice-surface-smaller-nhl-rinks

[viii] https://www.olympics.com/en/news/olympic-ice-hockey-nhl-rules-difference

[ix] https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/46930788/nhl-questions-rink-readiness-ice-quality-ahead-olympics

[x] https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/11/25/nhl-publicly-remaining-patient-about-status-of-olympic-hockey-rink/

[xi] https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/hockey-101-venue#:~:text=Two%20venues%20will%20host%20hockey,USA%2DFIN

[xii] https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/47139562/racers-say-milan-cortina-speedskating-venue-feels-lake

[xiii] https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/concern-grows-olympic-hockey-venue-145133948.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAE6Zswt6kjPaTF5pgRcqJ7QCwR8cffeX4mjRVMkFRxIb1WFkPnl6aEMVfCM2w411zBWbBUgAmwJRIaOquwvgSoQI8DTKvd6Euf7QwilcGz6b2DzLxNW1hRS1UaIfnw6vdtNwzOHptHRX0EZ-IF4M4j8cj4HGr-vg19fwHZ9DI2jn

 

Photo Credit: @ Milano Cortina 2026