The walk to the site hosting men’s and women’s competitions at the Games is a muddy one. The 25-minute winding trek from a nearby (sort of) city subway stop won’t get your boots wet on a dry day. But all the puddled dirt surrounding the new facility—which will welcome [competitors] after an absence of a dozen years—not to mention the fencing, weeds, construction equipment, and debris—serves as a reminder the complex isn’t quite ready to stand as a showcase. The place, on the southeastern fringes of the city limits, isn’t a pretty sight.
But it seems ready to host a hockey tournament. While last-minute venue construction is as much an Olympic tradition as the [torch relay] or [opening ceremony], the Santagiulia hockey arena sparked serious concern—for good reason: as recently as mid-December, the place looked like what NHL officials described. But a Feb. 3 afternoon visit, two days before the first game (an Italy vs. France women’s showdown), showed clean ice, installed seats, and concession stands ready to operate.
At the very least, the Olympics will almost definitely have a hockey tournament.
(Note the hedging).
Nonstop construction over recent days and months got the job done. “The biggest challenge in any Games is that it’s an unmoveable deadline,” says Veronika Muhlhofer, event general manager for the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. “For any other project, you might think, ‘Okay, well, maybe we could push it a bit.’ But with the Games, you never can. That always adds a little stress factor.”
Muhlhofer notes while the media typically overhypes doomsday scenarios for Olympic construction, it was fair for Milano Santagiulia. “If you looked at it two or three months ago, they were still building it,” she says. “Legitimately, people were nervous and stressed about whether it could get done.”
Test events for Olympic venues are usually held a year in advance; Milano Santagiulia had one less than a month before the Games. The arena hosted a series of Italian league games. The Olympic men’s hockey tournament starts Feb. 11: NHL and its players’ association officials, who attended the test event, said they were satisfied with the conditions. In a joint statement, they called it a “good trial run,” despite a small hole in the ice that needed fixing during one contest.
In the arena’s lower levels on Tuesday, two workers were painting a hallway. Exposed electrical wires jutted out of a stairwell wall—and the ceiling. A ladder stood in another area; trash bags were piled in the luxury suite section. Not ideal visuals this close to face-off.
The ice, however, looked smooth. And perhaps most importantly, two machines moved—at the typical slow pace—across the surface.
The Zambonis are in the house. Let the Olympic Games begin.
