One of the big stories to come out of last week’s Board of Directors meeting was that the Olympic ice rink in Milan, Italy, was behind schedule. A planned event to test the rink and play a match in December has been postponed to January.
Construction of the ice rink should have been completed by now. And there is no backup plan for the IOC or the IIHF to use another rink in case this one isn’t ready. As Fourth Period’s Dave Pagnotta jokingly said Wednesday during his appearance on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio, the games can be played outdoors.
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But there is certainly concern that this rink is not ready yet, as it will host both the men’s and women’s games during the Winter Olympics. Similar to the NHL Draft being decentralized, Commissioner Gary Bettman, when he made it clear that it was the General Managers who wanted decentralized, said the same when it comes to rink construction.
During an appearance on Sirius
NHLRumors.com Transcripts
Steve Kouleas: “I wanted to start the conversation about the start of the season, but there’s a lot of noise, Mr. Commissioner, about the Olympics. Yesterday I was told that this rink doesn’t have a roof, so what are we going to play out there? And yesterday (Tuesday) Emily Kaplan was watching ESPN, and she was talking about not getting the broadcast, so I didn’t really understand exactly what was going on. So now that you’re on the program Can you give us more information about the construction today? And I think: why not broadcast from Long Island?
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Gary Bettman: “Okay, both good questions and both deserve an answer. The first is the construction of the ice rink in Milan. The construction of the main hockey rink for the Olympics has been delayed. Not something we have anything to do with, not something we have control over.”
I have been expressing my concerns for over two years. Representatives of the IOC and the International Ice Hockey Federation are confident the rink will be ready for the Olympic Games in February. And I certainly hope they’re right, because it would be a disaster for them if they don’t get the rink finished.
They say all the right things, but normally the rinks for the Olympics are prepared a year to six months in advance so they can test them. Obviously they’re not talking about that time frame. They’re talking about getting it up and running maybe a week before the Olympics.
The good news is that our ice people are helping them, and we will help them, and if there isn’t a roof on it now, I imagine there will be a roof on it in the next three months when we start the Olympics. And it’s one of the issues that I’ve always had about the cancellation of our season and the disruption to it, but which is out of our control. We are invited guests at best, so there are only so many things we can control, but the Olympic infrastructure is certainly not one of them.”
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As for the Super Bowl Media Day-style event as a farewell event for the players, Commissioner Bettman said he consulted with the NHLPA and felt it was best to get the players to Italy as soon as possible so they could prepare for the Olympics to make the tournament the best it can be. It is important for the players that they are there.
But it’s clear from listening to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman that he’s not too happy about this rink not being completed on time.
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