The Santa Giulia Arena in Milan, Italy, last month, where the hockey tournament for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in February.Luca Bruno/The Associated Press
After visiting several times over the years, I have learned two Italian phrases. They are “is extra,” because everything is, and “is not possible.”
On one of these trips, I turned into a village in Salerno. I went into a coffee shop and asked where I could get gas. It was not possible, the barista told me. Several patrons joined this conversation to debate loudly, and then angrily, whether it was or was not possible to get gas in a hilltop community that is only reasonably accessible by gas-powered vehicle.
Eventually, I abandoned the scene, got back in the car, drove a couple of hundred yards up the road and ended up right by a gas station.
Italy – delightful country and people, but not driven by our North American fixation on details.
So it does not seem a great surprise that one of the centrepieces of the upcoming Milan Olympics – a new, purpose-built hockey rink – may not be ready in time for the, you know, Olympics.
The Italians were meant to be holding a test event now, but that’s been put off until mid-January. The first game in competition will take place on February 5.
NHL stars poised for Olympic return in 2026 after long wait
The man in charge, Andrea Francisi, told the Associated Press that he is confident “for the moment” that everything will be fine. “For the moment” sounds like a short walk from “is not possible.”
“There is no plan B,” Francisi said, and that line was picked up around the world over the weekend.
What would plan B look like? Get a couple of fire trucks, spray down the Piazza del Duomo and hope for a cold snap?
This is the modern Olympics in a nutshell – no plan B, and just barely a plan A.
The first thing you must wonder is why a city that has no use for hockey is building a modern, 16,000-seat hockey arena? It’s ridiculous.
But having said they would do it, failing to deliver it until three weeks before the big event is even more ridiculous.
Canada’s Cale Makar ready to make up for lost time as Olympics swing into focus
This is what happens when you untether professional sport from profit motive. Everything becomes rinky dink.
We are long past the days when governments would announce made-up numbers about economic activity generated by major sports events and expect people to buy them. You can’t pay your rent with economic activity.
Cities have been losing on the Olympics forever, but what’s changed is that they a) anticipate being ripped off, and b) don’t expect to see a nickel out of it.
Tokyo was the last city that leaned into the urban design possibilities of an Olympics. It built a half dozen new venues, including a gorgeous main stadium tucked pristinely into a residential neighbourhood. It blew its budget and cost the minister in charge of the Olympic project his job.
Then COVID hit. The arenas were spectacular, and there was no one in them. The whole thing was a massive downer. You could feel the city’s disappointment even as the Olympics were underway.
Paris 2024 was judged a financial grand slam in that it only ran 25 per cent over budget and cost half of what Tokyo spent on the Games. How did it manage that? Nothing new. Refurbishments only, and those it did on the cheap.
McDavid, Crosby lead Canadian men’s hockey prep for 2026 Olympics
Many of the venues looked like convention halls. One of my abiding memories of the Games is winding up long flights of stairs inside scaffolding holding up temporary seating. If the crowd in the arena erupted while you were mid-climb, the scaffolding would sway queasily.
It all looks good on TV, which is the important part. But behind the scenes, it was already falling apart under hard use. The French didn’t need to provide state-of-the-art facilities. They had Paris.
Milan 2026 has the same advantage, and appears to be leaning hard into it. Athletes in the Cortina mountain cluster will stay in a temporary mobile home park. They look like nice mobile homes, but still.
Skiing’s big hitters are expected to pay their own way to stay in nearby hotels. So much for the Olympic spirit.
The cheapness of an Olympics has become a core part of the mission, under the banner of sustainability. Eventually, the athletes will be staying in tents and the spectators will be watching from $400 Olympic-branded blankets they pay extra to spread out on the grass. Then they will charged extra extra to replace all the grass after they’re gone.
What to know about the flame-lighting ceremony for the Winter Olympics
Milan got most of this memo, except for the hockey arena. It is guilty of the sin of pride. It was showing off for the rest of us.
Will the hockey rink be ready? Of course it will be. It has to be.
Will it be any good? Of course not. You move into a brand new house, and there’s always something wrong. The taps leak or the air conditioner doesn’t work. You call the builder and he shows up two months after he promised he would to fix it. The hockey arena is an 800,000 square-foot house, only far more complicated.
You can’t know how it runs until you’ve run it. I am looking forward to all the little disasters to come, but mostly I’m excited about the complaining. Can you imagine how much complaining there’s going to be? You could make it a beat – skiing reporter, figure-skating reporter, complaining reporter.
The Olympics is the greatest sporting event in the world, but it’s nowhere close to the greatest sporting experience in the world. If you want first-class treatment, sign with the Dallas Cowboys. If you want a caviar-viewing extravaganza, follow Formula One. That circuit is designed to fleece the rich.
If you want to rough it (relatively speaking), you go to an Olympics. Bizarrely, they have become the closest you can get to an ‘authentic’ sports encounter. The greatest athletes in the world in modest surroundings.
It’s become part of the charm, like a holiday meal at a disorganized relative’s house. The bird isn’t cooked and you’re eating off your lap, but as long as the company’s good, you leave happy every time.