Santagiulia Arena prepares to welcome over 100 Nhl stars

After the test event, work will continue until the last day in the Milan facility where the champions of the North American tournament that boasts revenues of $7 billion will play

by Marco Bellinazzo

11 January 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The 'Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena', after Friday and Saturday's games, is hosting three more matches today to close the dress rehearsal in view of the Olympic Games, which will award the gold medal in the women's ice hockey tournament on 19 February and that of the men's tournament on 22 February, with the presence of more than a hundred players from the Nhl (National hockey league), eagerly awaited after 12 years of absence from the Olympic stage (for the probable final between the USA and Canada, the price list includes tickets even above $10,000).

From 7 to 15 March then the challenges between the eight best national teams of the Para ice hockey tournament will take place.

As for Italy, the women's national team will make its debut at the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on 5 February against France, while the Azzurri will make their debut on 11 February against Sweden.

The PalaItalia, designed by English architect David Chipperfield, is owned by the German entertainment giant Eventim (which operates in Italy through its subsidiary TicketOne). The construction of the work has aroused much controversy due to costs and delays. The initial budget for a 16,000-seat indoor arena was estimated at 180 million, but the increase in the price of raw materials has led to increases of about 90 million, which will be partially financed by the Government, the Lombardy Region and the Municipality of Milan (to the 21 million of the Sport Decree of August were added the 30 million allocated by the so-called 'Anticipi' decree in November). On the delays front, while work is in progress to be ready for the debut of the Games, especially outside the structure that is still a construction site, it must be said that a part, not even a secondary part of the accessory works, especially for the road system, has not been completed.

Meanwhile, this weekend, with the support of the Italian Ice Sports Federation (FISG), a dress rehearsal was organised with the Final Four of the Ihl Serie A, the top tricolour championship, and the Italian Cup (reserved for teams from Italy's minor leagues).

Competing for the 'scudetto' were two teams from Veneto, Asiago and Cortina, and two from South Tyrol, Rittner Buam and Vipiteno.

Seven teams play in the main Italian league - in addition to the four mentioned above, there are Merano, Gherdeina and Unterland - that are simultaneously engaged in the Alps Hockey League (in fact, the matches between the Italian teams are valid for the two classifications), a league founded in 2016 and this year in its tenth season, also formed by representatives of the Austrian, Slovenian and Croatian Federations. In fact, it is the second level of the Ice Hockey League, which is joined not only by the main Austrian, Slovenian and Hungarian teams, but also by the two Italian teams Bolzano and Val Pusteria, which, however, do not fall within the tricolour perimeter.

Speaking of Italian teams, the Milanese fans, long deprived of a top-level team after the retirement in 2022 of the Hockey Club Milano Bears, have in recent days announced their presence at the Santagiulia arena to protest the absence of adequate facilities to give the sport a future in the city. After the Olympics, in fact, Palaitalia will be put to other uses.

In fact, the creation of supranational championships was dictated by the need to increase the pool of spectators and encourage the involvement of TV stations and sponsors in a discipline that is deeply rooted territorially but always in a precarious economic-financial balance.

Unknown problems in the National Hockey League. The North American professional league will stop after the last game between the Los Angeles Kings and Vegas Golden Knights on 5 February.

The pause for the Olympic appointment was not so obvious, also because it is a question of suspending a machine that is in full swing, so much so that in the 2024/25 season it reached a record audience, with over 23 million spectators and a 97% arena fill rate, as well as a TV audience of 504 thousand viewers on average per match, thanks to the contribution of ESPN, which recorded a 25% increase year on year. It is no coincidence that the TV agreement with the Canadian group Rogers Communications was extended last spring for 12 years for $7.7 billion, almost double the previous contract.

Also last year, NHL franchises topped the list of sponsorship revenues with $1.5 billion.

More generally, the league's total revenues only rose to $7 billion (equivalent to average team revenues increased by 9 per cent to $243 million) and the average team value to $2.1 billion with an increase of 15-17 per cent year-on-year, according to reports by Forbes and Sportico.