OLYMPICS CHAOS DEEPENS AS FURIOUS COACH CLAIMS DELAYED ARENA ISN'T EVEN THE CORRECT SIZE
A Team Canada coach has voiced his fury at the construction chaos that threatens to derail the ice hockey event at the upcoming Milan Cortina Winter Games.
It was revealed last month that construction on the arena - which is set to welcome NHL players back to the Olympics for the first time in more than a decade - is behind schedule and its completion is going right down to the wire.
A test event at the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena - the new 16,000-seat venue on the outskirts of Milan - had to be moved, and new test events aren't scheduled until January 9-11.
Now, amid growing concerns from players, fans and organizers, one coach has added fuel to the fire by claiming that the ice sheet isn't even the right size.
Speaking to Sportsnet, Team Canada men's assistant coach Peter DeBoer said: 'The ice surface, it looks like it's going to be smaller than NHL rink standard by probably 3 or 4 feet. I don't understand how that happened.'
Despite the tournament being played in Italy, initial plans had aimed to use NHL dimensions, which is slightly smaller than European leagues.
A standard NHL rink is 200 feet long and 85 feet wide, compared to a standard rink using in international tournaments, which is typically 196.9 feet by 95.1 feet.
Therefore, if the rink is '3 or 4 feet' smaller than an NHL rink, it would mean that it's roughly the length of an Olympic-sized sheet - but 10 feet narrower.
Meanwhile, at the end of last month, Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer for Milan Cortina, told the Associated Press: 'There is no plan B.
'So necessarily we have to be able to organize the competition in an impeccable manner at Santagiulia.'
The first scheduled Olympic hockey game at the arena is a women's preliminary round match on February 5, one day before the opening ceremony.
Usually, new Olympic venues are tested at least the year before hosting medal events. And with a large hockey arena it's not just about the ice and making sure the playing surface is ready and safe.
It's also about testing concession stands, bathrooms and everything else inside a brand new arena.
Francisi admitted there is 'no precise date' for the venue to be handed over to local organizers, but he is confident 'for the moment' that it will be ready for the Olympics.
'There are daily updates in the sense that our team is there working every day,' Francisi said. 'The companies which are involved with the building of the facility have sped up their work significantly.
'We're monitoring all that daily together with them, there's great collaboration between us, we're creating a coordinated plan between their work and our preparations and for the moment we're healthily optimistic, but 100% we'll do it.'
The men's Olympic hockey tournament is scheduled from February 11-22. The women's tournament runs from February 5-19.
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