MILAN — Stepping inside the Santagiulia Arena for the first time felt like walking onto a construction site.

Less than four weeks from the start of the Milan Cortina Olympics, the main ice hockey venue remains very much a work in progress.

The good news is that ice and seating are in place, with a few thousand spectators on hand Friday night for an Italian Cup game that marked the first test event played at the venue.

But construction dust also floated over the playing surface during Friday’s game — a sign of the frantic push to get the building in working order by Feb. 5, when the women’s Olympic tournament is scheduled to open with a game between France and Italy.

Organizers have a lot of work to get done before then. There were still multiple large holes in the exterior of the building as of Friday night, which poses a major challenge to icemakers since they can’t properly regulate the conditions inside the arena.

Large holes remain in the exterior of Santagiulia Arena. (Photo by Chris Johnston for The Athletic)

The permanent dressing room area is also still under construction, with only three of the planned 14 rooms anywhere near complete. One construction worker told The Athletic on Friday that he’d just completed an 11-hour shift.

“We’re very busy,” he said.

Those dressing rooms and a practice rink are housed in a temporary structure adjacent to the arena, connected by a long walkway, parts of which are outside under a temporary cover.

The practice rink structure is currently dotted with forklifts, building materials and other tools. The ice in that building just had the lines painted on it Friday and can’t yet be skated on. Getting that completed is vital since there won’t be anywhere else for teams to skate during the Olympics, when the main rink will be jammed with as many as three games per day.

Only three of the 14 locker rooms that will soon host Olympic hockey teams are currently complete. (Photo by Chris Johnston for The Athletic)

Things are coming along in the game rink. While it’s far from perfect — the capacity will come in at 11,800, well short of the planned 14,000 because they ran out of time to finish entire sections — there’s no sense on the ground that the Olympic tournament is in jeopardy.

Live look inside MH1 — the main Olympic arena in Milan , where construction is still ongoing but they’ll play the first test game here tonight pic.twitter.com/LmBMIY8kYx

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) January 9, 2026

The building currently features unpainted drywall and unfinished concrete floors throughout. There will be no fancy concourses or luxury boxes here. On Friday night, fans could purchase food and beer from food trucks parked outside.

Fans can currently only purchase food at food trucks outside the arena. (Photo by Chris Johnston for The Athletic)

The ice surface appeared soft and snowy in its debut, and there was a delay in the first period after a hole developed in front of one of the goals.

A tiny scoreboard that would look out of place in a Canadian junior rink hung over center ice. Organizers say it will be replaced by one that is twice as big before the start of the Olympics.

Prior to Friday’s puck drop, officials from the International Ice Hockey Federation and various national teams toured the facility. That included Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada’s senior vice president of high performance and hockey operations, who flew to Italy after the completion of the World Juniors earlier this week.

He took an optimistic view of the recent progress made at the building.

“The games are going to be great,” Salmond told The Athletic. “Like every Olympics, there’s challenges with what happens outside of the game, but we’re Canadian. People grew up in small towns and small rinks, outdoor rinks. We can adapt to all of those things. The most important thing is that we can play in a rink, the families can come and watch it and people around the world are going to be able to watch it.

“It’s exciting. I’m excited about it.”

Salmond plans to provide an update to Team Canada. The men’s team is due to practice in this building after arriving in Milan on Feb. 8. It opens the tournament against Czechia on Feb. 12.

While it’s clear this Olympic arena will be nowhere close to NHL standards, Salmond believes the enthusiasm of NHL players after a 12-year hiatus since the 2014 Sochi Games won’t be dampened by the setup.

“I think that the team that embraces just the challenges that are here and is willing to accept those and is able to put some of that aside and just focus on playing the games is the team that’s going to be the most successful,” Salmond said. “I think the excitement that our players have to be back in the Olympics will overshadow any of the challenges that we’re going to encounter here.”