Milano Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena and the Olympic Challenge

Within the geography of venues for Milano–Cortina 2026, there is one site more than any other that encapsulates what is at stake in these 25th Winter Olympic Games: Santa Giulia, Rogoredo, where Arena Milano is taking shape—also known as PalaItalia or, in its Olympic configuration, the Milano Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena.

Designed by David Chipperfield Architects, with Arup responsible for engineering, Arena Milano is a project with a dual mission. On the one hand, it must become the stage for the most decisive matches—including the gold medal ice hockey games. On the other, it is expected to endure, transforming into a permanent piece of infrastructure for sport and live entertainment in the city. Here, the concept of legacy comes back into focus, a theme already explored in our previous Winter Olympics special dedicated to the Milan Olympic Village. It is precisely this dual nature—Olympic and metropolitan—that explains why the arena has been at the centre of expectations, delays and mounting pressure right up to the final stretch of construction.

Although construction of the venue has not yet been fully completed, on Sunday, January 11, the new arena hosted the finals of the 92nd Italian Ice Hockey Championship, won by Asiago, as well as the 30th edition of the Coppa Italia, claimed by Caldaro.

“The venue is very beautiful, both outside and inside, and it will give a lot to the city in the coming years,” said Andrea Varnier, CEO of Milano Cortina 2026. “We know there is still a lot of work to be done on the arena as a whole,” Varnier added, “but these days were essential to test the field of play—which certainly met expectations—and some aspects of spectator management, especially transport. That also gave us great satisfaction: the work done together with the City of Milan and ATM proved effective.”

The Arena Santa Giulia case

Arena Milano is embedded within a broader urban regeneration project. Santa Giulia is an evolving district, shaped by new housing, services and connections, in a strategic quadrant of Milan that already interfaces with the Rogoredo railway and metro hub. Here, the arena is not conceived as an isolated object, but as an urban node. Its official address—Via del Futurismo, 20138 Milan—is almost a manifesto in itself. The decision to locate the venue in the city’s south-east reflects a strategy of decentralising metropolitan functions, anchoring them to existing infrastructure beyond the traditional core.

The model is clear: development and management by a private operator, with a public-interest objective tied to the Games. The client and future operator is CTS EVENTIM, an international ticketing and live entertainment group, which has conceived the project as a multifunctional arena “Italian-style”, yet aligned with the standards of major European venues.

Architecture and numbers: a 16,000-seat machine

The declared capacity of Arena Santa Giulia is 16,000 spectators, with flexible configurations combining seated and standing areas. This scale positions Milan in a market segment where concerts, major indoor events and international competitions demand volumes and services that traditional venues struggle to provide—basketball above all. Beyond the Assago Forum and the Allianz Cloud (formerly PalaLido), the city is seeking a home for the “new Milan” of basketball envisioned by NBA Europe.

Capacity, however, is only part of the equation. The arena spans eight levels and covers approximately 77,000 sq. m, conceived as a fully integrated system of flows, access points, foyers and hospitality spaces.

One of the most significant urban gestures is the public square of over 10,000 sq. m that wraps around the building, diffusing its impact into the surrounding space. Designed as a platform for outdoor events and as an urban antechamber to the arena, this element shifts the narrative away from the iconic object toward neighbourhood function: not merely entering and exiting a sports hall, but creating an active urban pole even on non-event days.

The construction site and the challenge of the “Olympic deadline”

The official timeline points to design work beginning in 2021, construction starting in 2023, and completion scheduled for 2025—an ambitious roadmap from the outset, leaving little margin for unexpected issues on a project of this scale. In September 2023, CTS EVENTIM announced the start of the “second construction phase” and appointed Consorzio ETERIA as general contractor, a consortium comprising Itinera (ASTM Group) and Vianini Lavori (Caltagirone Group). On that occasion, the delivery target aligned with the Olympic deadline was reaffirmed.

Yet Santa Giulia’s arena has become—by admission of international observers—the most sensitive construction site in the Milano–Cortina machine, the one where schedule anxiety has been most acute. The American news agency Reuters reported “slow progress” and a race against time, with parts of the facility completed progressively to ensure at least sporting functionality.

The turning point came with the test events. On Friday, January 9, the arena opened to the public for a trial event. Reuters reported a final Olympic configuration capacity of 15,300 spectators, with reduced attendance during testing days (around 4,000 spectators), while work continued on other components such as certain hospitality areas. It is a tangible snapshot of what delivering an arena “against the clock” means: first the ice and core operations, then the refinement of services, with the priority being that the heart of the venue functions when the spotlight turns on.

As an Olympic arena, the building must meet a non-negotiable requirement: ice hockey. In the weeks leading up to testing, part of the debate focused on the rink’s slightly smaller dimensions compared to North American standards, a topic amplified by the prospect of NHL players returning to the Games. Reuters reports that the IOC (International Olympic Committee) deemed the difference “marginal” and compliant with requirements, deferring any adjustments to testing and operational debriefs.

This detail highlights a broader issue: an arena of this kind is not just architecture, but performance engineering. Ice quality, microclimate control, conversion times between configurations, team logistics and broadcasting requirements—these are the factors that turn a new building into a venue that is truly “ready”.

After the Games: the arena’s everyday life

The Games are an accelerator, but the real validation of such a project lies in its post-Olympic life: conversion into a hub for sport and live entertainment. Here, structural choices become central—double tiers of seating, lounge levels and sky boxes, large circulation spaces, and systems designed to support concerts and complex productions. The project’s green component also plays a role in its long-term narrative: rooftop photovoltaic systems and measures to reduce energy consumption and emissions will affect operating costs and the venue’s reputation over time.

Arena Milano is more than a new sports hall: it is a threefold test of maturity. The first is sporting, as it will host Olympic hockey and medal-defining matches. The second is industrial, as it tests a partnership model in which a private operator builds and manages a facility with a public function and a non-negotiable deadline. The third is urban, as Santa Giulia–Rogoredo becomes a laboratory for a Milan that grows through nodes, linking neighbourhoods, infrastructure and new centres of gravity.

Perhaps this is what makes the arena such a closely watched project: it is not just about “finishing on time”, but about understanding whether a building born under Olympic pressure can truly become a lasting part of the city.

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