Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 has formalised a partnership with GL events Italia, confirming the group as Official Temporary Infrastructure Partner of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The agreement places GL events in charge of the supply, design, installation, maintenance and removal of temporary infrastructure-often referred to as event “overlay”-across the Games footprint, from urban arenas in Milan to mountain venues in the Dolomites.

The deal sits within the governance framework set by the Olympic Charter and the host city contract between the International Olympic Committee and local authorities, which require organising committees to guarantee competition-ready venues, accessibility and safety standards while managing long-term impacts on host territories.

What the partnership covers

The scope spans tents and temporary structures, modular buildings, temporary stands, media stations and portable hydraulic units. GL events Italia will support the preparation of 20 venues identified by the Organising Committee, with responsibilities that stretch from technical studies and site preparation to handover and decommissioning once competition ends.

Under the agreement, the company will work alongside Italian national, regional and municipal authorities on permitting, safety regulations and crowd-management requirements, integrating public guidelines on fire safety, accessibility and environmental protection into venue overlay designs.

Operational build-out across key sites

To coordinate delivery, GL events Italia has established a dedicated project office in Milan and deployed specialised teams on the ground. Early work is focused on ensuring site readiness for athletes, teams, media and spectators, including circulation plans, broadcasting positions and modular seating that can be scaled to demand and adjusted to security perimeters agreed with public authorities.

Venues cited in the plan include:

• Arena Santagiulia, Milano – hosting ice hockey and para ice hockey.
• Predazzo – home to Nordic and Nordic combined ski events.
• Cortina d’Ampezzo – site for the women’s alpine ski races.

These sites form part of a wider Games map that stretches across Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, making coordinated temporary infrastructure one of the main tools for balancing local planning constraints with Games-time demand.

Why it matters for competition and scheduling

Temporary infrastructure underpins sport-specific standards without committing to permanent builds, a critical factor for multi-cluster Winter Games staged across urban arenas and alpine sites. Efficient overlay reduces conversion time between sessions, stabilises spectator capacity and helps provide consistent athlete services-from changing areas to equipment storage-supporting performance and predictable scheduling. For para sport, temporary structures are also central to accessible routes, field-of-play access and media operations that meet classification and broadcasting needs.

From an event-operations standpoint, a single partner for design through decommissioning reduces interface risk between contractors, helping organisers align field-of-play layouts, mixed zones and media compounds with international federation requirements overseen within the Olympic framework of the Olympic Charter. It also simplifies coordination with national safety regulators, transport operators and local police forces responsible for crowd control and emergency access.

Sustainability and legacy lens

Overlay allows organisers to right-size facilities to actual demand and remove them post-Games, limiting permanent impact on host communities and alpine environments. That aligns with the event’s stated priority on reuse and sustainability, an approach reiterated by Games leadership as central to the legacy objectives for Milano Cortina 2026 and in line with the International Olympic Committee’s own sustainability and climate commitments.

In practice, this means prioritising reusable structures, modular components that can be redeployed for future events in Italy, and designs that avoid locking local governments into costly, underused permanent venues once the Olympic and Paralympic competitions conclude.

What leaders said

“In designing the Milano Cortina 2026 Games, we set ourselves an ambitious goal: to balance the highest quality of the Olympic and Paralympic experience with the principle of reuse and sustainability,” said Andrea Varnier, CEO of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation. “The legacy is our most important challenge… Collaborating with global partners means being able to count on solid and functional structures that perfectly respond to this vision: offering an excellent welcome today, while respecting the territory tomorrow.”

“GL events’ commitment to the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games goes far beyond simple technical support,” said Olivier Ginon, Chairman and CEO of GL events. “We are eager to help create the best possible conditions for athletes, teams and spectators… This sponsorship agreement represents a declaration of confidence in the Olympic and Paralympic movement and a concrete commitment to creating responsible, inclusive and unifying Games.”

Competitive and commercial implications

For sport, reliable overlay is a competitive variable: consistent ice quality and venue operations support fair play in ice hockey and para ice hockey; properly calibrated jumps, start areas and athlete flows are decisive in Nordic and alpine venues. Commercially, modular tribunes and media stations enable broadcasters and sponsors to activate within guidelines while maintaining sightlines and broadcast standards. Integrated maintenance through the event cycle also reduces downtime risk that could disrupt session turnarounds or training windows.

For public authorities and Games organisers, the commercial layer is closely linked to regulatory compliance: broadcast compounds, hospitality structures and sponsor activations must all be delivered within zoning rules, advertising regulations and security plans, making a single overlay partner a key interface between commercial stakeholders and the wider governance ecosystem.

The road to Games-time delivery

With venue clusters spanning metropolitan and mountain settings, logistics will hinge on sequencing-what is built, tested and handed over first-and on the removal plan that follows. A single contractor model for overlay provides a unified chain of accountability from design to removal, a practical advantage as organisers coordinate transport flows, snow management and urban crowd movements during the Olympic and Paralympic periods.

In the final two years before the Opening Ceremony, GL events Italia will move from design and permitting into full-scale construction, test events and operational rehearsals, working alongside the organising committee and Italian authorities to validate emergency routes, accessibility provisions and media operations ahead of Games-time.