Olympic officials optimistic as Milano Santagiulia arena sees its 1st action in test event

Chris Jones reports from Italy ahead of the Milano Cortina Olympics.

The troubled Milano Santagiulia arena saw its first game action on Friday, months of anxiety and recriminations making way, for one night at least, for a little hockey.

The much-vaunted “test event” — meant to assure the NHL that the arena is ready to host the first best-on-best men’s Olympic tournament since 2014 — began with a Coppa Italia semifinal. When the doors finally opened to people not wearing hard hats for the first time, workers were still frantically removing dust from the seats.

Apart from the ice itself, tended by Canadian ice master Don Moffatt, not much else about the arena resembled a finished product.

Only the lower bowl was open. The upper reaches of the arena were still festooned with black tarps, and the seats were wrapped in plastic. The concourses smelled of hours-old construction, and the drywall mud in some stretches was wet to the touch. 

But officials expressed full confidence that despite the hundreds of workers still clambering around the arena — they kept working throughout the opening game — the NHL and its players will be coming to Milan.

“100 per cent,” Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer, said rink side. “The arena is ready. We need to finalize some works, but the sports part is ready.”

“I’m very confident they will be here, and it’s going to be extremely exciting,” Pierre Ducrey, the IOC’s sport director, said, looking up at the bright arena lights. “We will have NHL players here in February, and it’s going to be amazing.”

There was a less optimistic moment in the first period, when a hole developed in the ice, and a big green watering can was brought out to fill it.

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The final, grander test will come Saturday, when a full morning of practice and three more games are planned. Even given Moffatt’s expert care — these are his fourth Olympics — there are concerns that the ice will not hold up under more stressful conditions and the heat of a full crowd.

Perhaps that’s why officials from the NHL and NHLPA were not made available for comment on Friday. Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, is expected to make a statement at the conclusion of this weekend’s tournament.

Luc Tardif, the IIHF president, will also speak Sunday.

If the NHL does allow its players to come — a near certainty, barring disaster on Saturday — organizers will have less than a month to finish the arena or come as close to finishing it as they can.

Host Italy will open the women’s competition against France at Milano Santagiulia on Feb. 5. Much of the women’s hockey will be held at the second, smaller rink in Rho, to the west of the city, but Canada will play the U.S. in Milan on Feb 10.

The men’s competition will begin on Feb. 11, with all of Canada’s preliminary games scheduled to be held at Milano Santagiulia.

There has been visible progress since last weekend. A big white tent that was half-assembled had become the accreditation centre; an abandoned car near the main pedestrian entrance had been towed away; garbage had been picked up and some construction barriers had also been removed.

But there remains so much obvious work to be done.

Wires still dangled from the ceiling. Doors that were supposed to open did not. Signs that promised concessions were mounted above blank walls. Even the hockey glass, which had been coated with dust earlier in the week, had been only hastily cleaned, fogged up like a visor.

“That’s why it’s called a test event,” Ducrey said. “We knew exactly what shape the venue would be. We are happy where we are, and we are excited to finally see the venue come to life.”

There was something joyful about hearing the telltale sounds of hockey in the arena for the first time, at last drowning out the drills.

Before their game, the players walked out from their locker rooms and took selfies with the fresh ice as their backdrop. Fans streamed inside with scarves around their necks and smiles on their faces. The sound system passed its first test, too: music pounded, people danced.

If the arena didn’t look like an arena, exactly, the hockey looked like hockey.

And suddenly all eyes were on the puck.