1. April 2026
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Ice Hockey At The Milan / Cortina Olympic Games 2026 at Rho Ice Hockey Arena

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Milan 2026 Rho Ice Hockey Arena

Milan 2026 Rho Ice Hockey Arena
3.2

Rating

 3.2/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Relaxed atmosphere and lovely staff
  • Very nice view from most of the seats

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Too small for purpose
  • Terrible food
  • Long walk from train station

These weeks on Flyctory.com are dominated by the Olympic Winter Games 2026. Even though I skipped watching short track speed skating (in favor of ice hockey), I still come back from Milan with quite a lot of thoughts and impressions. After I have introduced you to Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena already (which will turn into Palaitalia after the games), I now take you to the second ice hockey venue in Milan. Rho Ice Hockey Arena was already planned being a temporary venue. Nonetheless, I felt like sharing and reviewing my arena experience there. Here is my venue review.

 

 

Rho Ice Hockey Arena – Location & Transport

Rho Ice Hockey Arena was located in the trade fair of Milan, Milano Fiera. The fair hosted two venues, this one for ice hockey and, right opposite, a temporary venue for (traditional) speed skating. It is named after the Northwest borough of Milan, Rho, in which the trade fair is located. Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena was located in the very Northwest of the trade fair, in the exhibition halls 24 and 22.

Funnily, during the first days of the Olympic Ice Hockey tournament 2026, there were trade fairs in parallel. This might have limited the parking capacity – in general, the Olympic organizers recommended not to come by car, which was likely nonsense for this venue. The public transport situation, though, is quite ideal. Rho Fieramilano is the terminal stop of Metro Line 1 into the city. Furthermore, there is the train station Rho Fiera Milano. It has regional connections, but also hosts partial Frecciarossa (here: FR 1000 Executive Class) and Italo Rail (Executive Class review) national connections. These two stations are close to each other.

However, they are both located on the Southeast end of the ground. Walking from the train station to the venue gates took me more than 20 minutes, even though the security checks were very efficient.

 

Rho Ice Hockey Arena – The Venue / Tickets

The whole arena and its facilities (apart from restrooms) at Rho Ice Hockey Arena were temporary. Thereby, the arena felt very packed, using the maximum of space available. This also meant that the sea width felt limited. However, seating was very comfortable compared to the Santagiulia situation. Pillars lead to quite a couple of seats with a restricted view on the ice. The setting with the screens around the ice was really nice. I also liked the signage of the different seats, rows and numbers, which was very handy. However, in my point of view, the capacity of the venue was not fit for purpose. I found numbers between 5,000 and 6,000 specators. However, most of the matches had an audience of roughly 4,000 – also due to the fact that some (good) seats over the center line were not sold to the public.

Due to the low capacity, the ticket situation for some matches was bad. The arena hosted matches like Germany vs. Latvia, who both had a significant number of fans. As there were also some issues with the ticketing platform of the games, I finally had to go to the resale market to get a ticket for that match. If your view was not restricted by the building itself, you were very close to the ice and thus had a great view of the ice. On top of that, the pricing in the venue was really weird. Tickets behind the goal were available from 30 EUR, which was really customer-friendly.

 

Ice Hockey at Rho Ice Hockey Arena – Atmosphere

Even though Rho Ice Hockey Arena was more intimate and personal compared to the major area, the setting felt to kill the atmosphere a bit. There were some cheerful moments, but overall, European club matches often come with significantly more energy from the stands.

 

Rho Ice Hockey Arena – Merchandise & Food

There were two merchandise stores in and around Rho Ice Hockey Arena. One was located next to the walkway to the two venues (for ice hockey and speed skating). In addition, the exhibition hall itself hosted another store. Both felt rather small. Especially the one inside the venue could have easily taken significantly more space – there was free space available around. As at all Olympic venues, you could only pay cash or by VISA card. The items offered were limited in the range of items and sized. As I already told you in my Milan 2026 Megastore post, the planning and organization of Olympic merchandise was a fail.

Even worse than merchandise was the food and drink selection. Again, sponsoring defined comfort, so that there was just one sort of beer available. The food provided in the venue, hot dogs, burgers and pizza, was awful. It would have been easy to provide proper food at the event. A few cafes and bars of the trade fair itself and inside the station were open, though. They significantly improved the food situation. Apart from that the trade fair’s vending machines were very popular before and after matches.

 

Rho Ice Hockey Arena – Services

In general, the processes at Rho Ice Hockey Arena felt to be more mature and smooth compared to the major Milan venue. The processes before the match and between two matches felt much better thought-through and organized. However, when you left the arena to one of the train stations in the evening, there was no available toilet until the train station (the one at the metro station was closed on the later evening as well). The staff and the volunteers created a much more friendly and relaxed atmosphere at Rho compared to the Southeast of the Olympic host city.

 

Rho Ice Hockey Arena – My View

I somehow liked and hated this venue in Milan. First of all, it was too small and hosted matches which came with a significantly higher potential ticket sale. You just had to feel that the fans’ need is subordinate, as long as the venue somehow looks packed in TV all around the world. The staff was friendly and the visit relaxed. However, the services, especially the food and drink situation, was even worse than at the Paris Summer Olympic Games 2024.

 

Flyctory.com about Ice Hockey

Here are all ice hockey postings on Flyctory.com:

 

Olympic Games

Here are all Flyctory.com postings related to the Olympic Games:

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