Transport strike affecting Olympic test event underscores risks facing Milan-Cortina Games

ROME (AP) — A transport strike during an official test event for the Milan-Cortina Olympics highlighted why organizers are negotiating with trade unions to avoid a similar scenario during next year's Winter Games.

When workers for Azienda Trasporti Milanesi (ATM) walked off their jobs last Friday, Milan’s metro, bus and tram system ground to a halt, leaving organizers of a short-track speedskating event having to call in emergency buses to transport schoolchildren to the arena in Assago on Milan’s outskirts that will also host the sport during the Olympics.

“It was interesting to have a test like that and have to come up with an emergency plan,” Milan-Cortina CEO Andrea Varnier told The Associated Press on Tuesday at a Foreign Press Association presentation. “But we’re hoping that there’s good will between everyone involved during the games so that there are no strikes.”

Strikes by Italy’s trade unions regularly cripple transport in the country — often affecting rail and air travel, too. And with six different venue clusters spread over an area of more than 22,000 square kilometres (nearly 10,000 square miles) across a wide swath of northern Italy, public transport will be the glue that holds the Milan-Cortina Games together.

“It’s essential for making our games work, so it’s fundamental that the transport system really works,” Varnier said.

In recent months, thousands of teachers, health care workers, trash collectors and others have walked off their jobs across Italy on Fridays to protest a decline in spending power, persistently low salaries and government policies they say have weakened public services.

Strikes and protests have also disrupted recent editions of Milan Fashion Week, snarling traffic and transfers between venues.

Strikes are generally called on Fridays, and the opening ceremony at the San Siro in Milan is scheduled for a Friday — Feb. 6, 2026. There are also two more Fridays of competition days before the games close on Feb. 22, 2026.

“We are in discussions with the labor minister and negotiating with all of the unions and public entities so as to avoid strikes during the Olympics,” Varnier said.

The 2026 Games will be the first Winter Games to fully embrace cost-cutting reforms installed by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and use mostly existing venues.

It will also be the first Olympics for a new IOC president, with seven candidates running in an election to be held next month in Greece. The chosen candidate will take over from Bach in June.

“We have a great relationship with president Bach and we are sure that we will have a great relationship with whoever is elected, because ours will mark the first games where the new president will appear before a big international audience,” Varnier said. “It’s going to be an intense period between the inauguration and our games.”

Another leadership change could involve Milan-Cortina president Giovanni Malagò, who is also president of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and an IOC member.

Malagò’s third and final four-year term as CONI president ends in May and there is a debate among Italian politicians whether or not to grant him an exceptional extra year in the role until after the Milan-Cortina Olympics and Paralympics.

Either way, Malagò will remain the president of the Milan-Cortina organizing committee. But a new CONI president would be guaranteed a seat on the Milan-Cortina executive board.

“The debate takes away a bit of the focus from the games and we would prefer that it’s taken care of afterward,” Varnier said. “Changing the executive board in the middle of things is never great. So we would prefer continuity, because the current board is working well.”

With a total of 1.5 million tickets available for the games, 300,000 were sold in the first six days of sales this month. An average of seven tickets were sold to every user on the platform for pre-registered applicants.

Open ticket sales, which don’t require pre-registration, will start in April.

More than half of the tickets cost less than 100 euros ($105).

The controversial sliding center in Cortina is taking shape, meaning that organizers believe they are near to casting aside the Plan B in Lake Placid, New York.

The IOC has set a deadline for the end of March for pre-certification of the track, construction of which is being overseen and fast-tracked by the Italian government.

“We still need to pass the pre-certification but it should be a done deal over the next two months,” Varnier said.

So is the organizing committee preparing to celebrate IOC approval?

“Yes," Varnier said. “Although right now we’re making plans as if the track were already ready.”

Environmental groups have protested the number of trees cut down to rebuild the century-old Cortina track, which had been closed since 2008.

Sports Minister Andrea Abodi noted that a new track’s power plant will also provide energy for Cortina’s ice arena, which will host curling during the Olympics.

“The old abandoned cement track was the real problem in terms of sustainability,” Malagò said. “I’ll dare to say that if it weren’t for the Olympics, that hunk of cement would have remained there for 200 years.”

The Cortina track will also be used for the 2028 Winter Youth Olympics recently assigned to many of the same venues for 2026.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics

Japan's Kosey Hayashi leads South Korea's Sungwoo Jang during the men's 1500 meters final of the ISU Short Track World Tour and Olympics Milano-Cortina 2026 test event, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

From left, Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation President Giovanni Malago, Italian Minister of Sports Andrea Bodi, Foundation CEO Andrea Vernier, and Foundation Communications Director Luca Casassa, attend a press conference at the Foreign Press Club in Rome, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, on the next Winter Olympic Games that will start in Italy in February 2026. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

Italy's Arianna Fontana competes during the women's 1000 meters final B, of the ISU Short Track World Tour and Olympics Milano-Cortina 2026 test event, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Spectators light smartphone torches during preliminaries round of the ISU Short Track World Tour, Olympics Milano-Cortina 2026 test event, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation CEO Andrea Vernier attends a press conference at the Foreign Press Club in Rome, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, on the next Winter Olympic Games that will take place in Italy in February 2026. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

Athletes compete during men's preliminaries round of the ISU Short Track World Tour, Olympics Milano-Cortina 2026 test event, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

From left, Italian MInister of Sports Andrea Bodi, Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation President Giovanni Malago and Foundation CEO Andrea Vernier attend a press conference at the Foreign Press Club in Rome, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, on the next Winter Olympic Games that will start in Italy in February 2026. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

FILE - Demonstrators gather during a public and private sectors' national strike called by the labor unions to protest against the government's budget law in Milan, Italy, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)

Athletes compete during the Women's 1500 mt. quarterfinal race of the ISU Short Track World Tour, Olympics Milano-Cortina 2026 test event, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Buffalo Bills fans arrived early and lingered long after the game ended to bid what could be farewell to their long-time home stadium filled with 53 years of memories — and often piles of snow.

After singing along together to The Killers' “Mr. Brightside” in the closing minutes of a 35-8 victory against the New York Jets, most everyone in the crowd of 70,944 remained in their seats to bask in the glow of fireworks as Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World” played over the stadium speakers.

Several players stopped in the end zone to watch a retrospective video, with the Buffalo-based Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” as the soundtrack while fans recorded selfie videos of the celebratory scene. Offensive lineman Alec Anderson even jumped into the crowd to pose for pictures before leaving the field.

With the Bills (12-5), the AFC's 6th seed, opening the playoffs at Jacksonville in the wild-card round next week, there's but a slim chance they'll play at their old home again. Next season, Buffalo is set to move into its new $1.2 billion facility being built across the street.

The farewell game evoked “a lifetime of memories,” said Therese Forton-Barnes, selected the team’s Fan of the Year, before the Bills kicked of their regular-season finale. “In our culture that we know and love, we can bond together from that experience. Our love for this team, our love for this city, have branched from those roots.”

Forton-Barnes, a past president of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame, attended Bills games as a child at the old War Memorial Stadium in downtown Buffalo, colloquially known as “The Rockpile.” She has been a season ticket holder since Jim Kelly joined the Bills in 1986 at what was then Rich Stadium, later renamed for the team’s founding owner Ralph Wilson, and then corporate sponsors New Era and Highmark.

“I’ve been to over 350 games,” she said. “Today we’re here to cherish and celebrate the past, present and future. We have so many memories that you can’t erase at Rich Stadium, The Ralph, and now Highmark. Forever we will hold these memories when we move across the street.”

There was a celebratory mood to the day, with fans arriving early. Cars lined Abbott Road some 90 minutes before the stadium lots opened for a game the Bills rested most of their starters, with a brisk wind blowing in off of nearby Lake Erie and with temperatures dipping into the low 20s.

And most were in their seats when Bills owner Terry Pegula thanked fans and stadium workers in a pregame address.

With Buffalo leading 21-0 at halftime, many fans stayed in their seats as Kelly and fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer Andre Reed addressed them from the field, and the team played a video message from 100-year-old Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy.

“The fans have been unbelievable,” said Jack Hofstetter, a ticket-taker since the stadium opened in 1973 who was presented with Super Bowl tickets before Sunday’s game by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. “I was a kid making 8 bucks a game back in those days. I got to see all the sports, ushering in the stadium and taking tickets later on. All the memories, it’s been fantastic.”

Bud Light commemorated the stadium finale and Bills fan culture with the release of a special-edition beer brewed with melted snow shoveled out of the stadium earlier this season.

In what has become a winter tradition at the stadium, fans were hired to clear the stands after a lake-effect storm dropped more than a foot of snow on the region this week.

The few remaining shovelers were still present clearing the pathways and end zone stands of snow some five hours before kickoff. The new stadium won’t require as many shovelers, with the field heated and with more than two-thirds of the 60,000-plus seats covered by a curved roof overhang.

Fears of fans rushing the field were abated with large contingent of security personnel and backed by New York State troopers began lining the field during the final 2-minute warning.

Fans stayed in the stands, singing along to the music, with many lingering to take one last glimpse inside the stadium where the scoreboard broadcast one last message:

“Thank You, Bills Mafia.”

AP Sports Writer John Wawrow contributed.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Fans watch a ceremony after the Buffalo Bills beat the New York Jets in the Bills' final regular-season NFL football home game in Highmark Stadium Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

Buffalo Bills cornerback Tre'Davious White (27) remains on the field to watch a tribute video after the Bills beat the New York Jets in the Bills' final regular-season NFL football home game in Highmark Stadium Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y.(AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

Fans watch a ceremony after the Buffalo Bills beat the New York Jets in the Bills' final regular-season NFL football home game in Highmark Stadium Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

Fans celebrate after the Buffalo Bills scored a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the New York Jets, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Fans celebrate and throw snow in the stands after an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Aga Deters, right, and her husband Fred Deters, walk near Highmark Stadium before an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Michael Wygant shoves snow from a tunnel before an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets at Highmark Stadium, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Buffalo Bills offensive tackle Alec Anderson (70) spikes the ball after running back Ty Johnson scored a touchdown against the New York Jets in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

FILE - The existing Highmark Stadium, foreground, frames the construction on the new Highmark Stadium, upper right, which is scheduled to open with the 2026 season, shown before an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the New England Patriots, Oct. 5, 2025, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

Salt crew member Jim Earl sprinkles salt in the upper deck before an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets at Highmark Stadium, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)