Overview
- New photos and video show workers on the stands, exposed cables on the floor and unfinished locker rooms less than a month before Olympic hockey begins on February 5.
- The first game of the Milano Hockey Finals—Varese vs. Caldaro—was paused for several minutes due to a hole in the ice that required on-the-spot repairs, including a watering can.
- The test event, intended as a final dry run, also exposed gaps in crowd access and operations with slow ticket scanning, sparse signage, limited parking and substitute buses replacing a planned tram link.
- The arena was developed by Eventim as a 16,000-seat concert venue, with reporting of substantial cost overruns and recent public funds, and it is expected to revert primarily to concerts after the Games.
- The rink is regulation but shorter than North American dimensions, uses temporary cooling and has limited warm-up space, prompting concern from North American observers even as Canadian ice specialist Don Moffatt works on conditions.