Olympic officials optimistic as Milano Santagiulia 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.

Inside the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena as it gears up for this weekend’s test tournament