Winter storm causes Aurora sports dome to collapse – Chicago Tribune

For the third time in 25 years, the Sport Zone soccer dome on Hill Avenue in Aurora has collapsed.

“There’s quite a bit of damage in and around the dome,” owner Tom Clifford said on Tuesday after surveying the damage.

No one was injured during the incident.

Around 3 p.m. Monday, the giant, white fabric dome caved under the weight of the rain, snow and sleet. By Tuesday morning, all that was left of the busy sports center were bent doorways that opened up to nothing, and an empty parking lot.

“About an hour before it collapsed, I said, ‘This reminds me of 1999,'” Clifford said. That was the last time the dome collapsed as a result of a winter storm.

“We had about 25 to 30 inches of snow that time,” Clifford said.

And, while Monday’s storm didn’t produce nearly that much snow, it did produce the perfect conditions for the dome’s demise, he said.

“I don’t know what you would call what (the weather) did yesterday,” Clifford said. “It was wet, heavy debris, and when that stuff attached to the dome, that was it. It was different than almost anything I’ve seen in all the years we’ve been here.”

Clifford said his son, Ryan Clifford, and several children he coaches, were playing a game of catch inside the dome prior to its collapse. The dome slowly collapsed, so everyone easily made it out.

The children’s parents then rushed to the parking lot to move their vehicles to safety when they realized what was happening.

“One guy ended up getting his (car) hood smashed,” Clifford said.

On security camera footage, you can see the dome begin to buckle under the weight of the rain water, sleet and ice, he said. Then, a hole rips in the dome’s fabric, water comes rushing in, and the structure slowly begins to lose air.

Clifford said the dome’s first collapse was in 1997, and was not a result of the weather. A car accident knocked out power to the entire area, and when emergency power at the dome didn’t kick on in time, the fabric dome collapsed.

Monday’s collapse, however, was a clear result of this winter’s first real storm.

“It was an odd bit of weather we had,” Clifford said. “For any dome owner it can be a dilemma.”

Not only did Clifford and co-owner Skip Buzanis have to worry about the monetary damage the structure had just incurred, they also had to break the news to the 220 league teams and dozens of other elite club soccer teams that practice at Sport Zone.

“It’s an administrative nightmare,” Buzanis said.

And, while they’ll try to relocate the teams, it won’t be an easy task.

“You try to help out the best you can,” Clifford said. “Nobody wants to be faced with this kind of problem.”

The owners have no time frame for reopening the dome, because they are still assessing all the damage, they said Tuesday.

ewurst@tribpub.com