{"id":216399,"date":"2025-10-15T23:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/216399\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T23:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:34:08","slug":"gary-bettman-concerned-over-arena-delays-ahead-of-nhl-olympics-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/216399\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Bettman concerned over arena delays ahead of NHL Olympics return"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NHL is growing concerned about the progress of the ice hockey facilities being constructed for the 2026 Winter Olympics, which are just four months away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Construction on the 16,000-seat arena, which will be the main venue for ice hockey during the Milan-Cortina Games, is going to come down to the wire, with the possibility that a test event for the venue might not be able to take place before the start of the Olympics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Associated Press reported<\/a> Wednesday that local organizers confirmed the tight timeline for completion. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the league has been concerned over the rink\u2019s construction for several years.<\/p>\n

Connor McDavid of Team Canada skates against Team United States in the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off Championship Game at TD Garden on February 20, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Due to the short timeline, the arena may not open until just days before the opening ceremony, leading players to potentially skate on untested ice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman speaks to the media prior to a game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena on October 8, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a concern for the last two years on the progress of the rink \u2014 both rinks but mainly the main one \u2014 but it\u2019s the [International Olympic Committee\u2019s] responsibility,\u201d Bettman said. \u201cWe\u2019re invited guests, but they know of our concerns and we\u2019re expecting that they\u2019re going to make good on all the promises to have a facility that is, from a competitive standpoint, first class.\u201d<\/p>\n

The upcoming games mark the first time NHL players have participated in the Olympics since the 2014 competition in Sochi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bettman said Wednesday that the NHL would express any concerns it has with the NHL Players Association if needed, but reiterated that this was an event run outside the league.\u00a0On top of the Olympics issues, plans for the arena to host an event as part of the IIHF under-20 world championship in December were scrapped and moved to the smaller Rho Fiera hockey venue.<\/p>\n

Construction continues at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Assago, near Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are constrained in what we can and can\u2019t do, request and demand and if it reached a certain point, we\u2019ll have to deal with it,\u201d Bettman said. \u201cBut I\u2019m not speculating, and we\u2019ve been constantly assured by the IOC and the [International Ice Hockey Federation] that it will be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NHL is growing concerned about the progress of the ice hockey facilities being constructed for the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,9763,19269,575,10018,85,31080],"class_list":{"0":"post-216399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-gary-bettman","11":"tag-milan","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-olympics","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-winter-olympics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}