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We’re around two months away from the first hockey game at the Winter Olympics in Italy, and there are some serious concerns that the arena that will host those contests won’t be ready in time. However, it appears there will be an inexplicable issue with the size of the rink regardless of whether or not the venue is ready to go.
Italy learned that Milan and Cortina would serve as the host for the 2026 Winter Olympics in the summer of 2019, which means the country had close to seven years to prepare to host the 25th iteration of the cold-weather version of the world’s premier international competition.
Every country that hosts the Olympics needs to tackle some infrastructure projects to ensure it will be able to accommodate the athletes and spectators who flock there for The Games, and Italy has set aside an operating budget of around $2 billion on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been poured into various construction endeavors.
That includes the PalaItalia Santa Giulia, the arena that was erected in Milan for the primary purpose of hosting ice hockey games. The estimated construction cost was pegged at around $195 million when builders broke ground in 2023, but that number has ballooned to over $300 million as delays have caused some major headaches.
Last week, we learned the arena won’t be holding its first “test event” until midway through January, and it doesn’t appear any competitive games will be played there until it’s officially christened when the women’s preliminary round competition kicks off on February 5th (a day before the Opening Ceremony commences).
However, that’s not the only cause for concern.
A Team Canada hockey coach says the rink at the 2026 Winter Olympics will be smaller than the standard NHL surface
The upcoming Winter Olympics mark the first time NHL players will get the chance to compete since the competition was hosted in Sochi in 2026, and those players will have to prepare for some minor adjustments in a tournament that’s governed by the rules dictated by the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Those changes include automatic icing as opposed to the hybrid approach and the absence of a trapezoid behind the nets. International games are usually played on a bigger rink, although the standard NHL dimensions were adopted in Vancouver in 2010 and Beijing in 2022.
It appeared that was going to be the case in Milan, but according to SportsNet, most players will somehow have even less space than they’re normally accustomed to.
Former Stars coach Peter DeBoer will be serving as an assistant behind the bench for Team Canada, and during a recent appearance on the Real Kyper & Bourne show, he dropped an unexpected tidbit about the size of the rink they’ll be playing, saying:
“Actually, the ice surface, it looks like it’s going to be smaller than NHL rink standards, by probably three or four feet…
I don’t believe it’s a huge difference. But I believe there is a difference, and it’s on the smaller, not the bigger side.”
As DeBoer notes, that difference in size shouldn’t be enough to cause any major chaos, but the fact that the rink in an arena that was literally built for hockey at the Olympics is smaller than it was supposed to be is a bit of a cause for concern.
Organizers have also said they have no Plan B if things go even more awry than they already have, so this is a situation that’s definitely worth keeping an eye on.