New Tinley Park sports dome collapses just before grand opening after severe storms

TINLEY PARK, Ill. - The I80 Sports Dome was going to open Monday, with teams scheduling their practices inside a climate-controlled dome to avoid the August heat.

But now you can see the fabric of the Tinley Park dome is down on the turf fields.

It was 95 percent completed.

The operator tells Fox Chicago they’ll start rebuilding on Monday.

New sports dome collapses in Tinley Park

The backstory:

This week’s severe weather overpowered the Sports Dome in Tinley Park.

Six employees were inside Monday, hanging the nets, putting on the final touches of the dome when they heard tornado sirens. They had about 5 minutes to get out of the dome and into a building on the campus. No one was hurt.

But the 383 feet by 220 feet turf space was covered in dome debris.

The Interstate Sports Dome plans to have six pickleball courts, multiple sport fields that could be divided six ways. It will offer training, batting cages, cheer and dance spaces and a restaurant where families can keep an eye on the sport space.

But now, the operator, Dan Gutierrez, says his company is focused on re-building all of that. Guitierrez said the fabric of the dome itself needs to be replaced. They checked out the mechanics and all seem to be in working order: "All in all, no structural damage."

The community is eager to be able to start using the dome and have been encouraging Gutierrez, who grew up in the south suburbs. 

He says the dome can be rebuilt in 6 weeks. The new opening target date in November would coincide with the planned restaurant opening.