Now reinflated, Rosemont dome reopens this weekend
Rosemont's indoor sports dome, now reinflated, reopens for business this weekend, six months after a storm tore the old roof covering to shreds.
The seven-story tall dome, located north of Balmoral Avenue and west of the Tri-State Tollway, will host a girls volleyball tournament Saturday, Sunday and Monday in which 180 teams will compete, some coming as far as Canada.
Village officials had hoped the dome would be ready to reopen by January, but ice and snow that gathered on the new roof material had to be removed by hand before the covering could be reattached to the edges and reinflated, said Frank Cargola, the dome's director of operations.
As many as 50 Rosemont village public works employees and staff from the Allstate Arena assisted, Cargola said.
The old plastic covering, stretching 565 feet in length by 250 feet in width, collapsed in a fast-moving thunderstorm Aug. 2.
Ten new individual plastic pieces that make up the dome roof were manufactured and delivered to Rosemont in December, then stitched together. When attached to the building and inflated by high-powered fans, the dome rises as high as seven stories.
Inside, the venue has two baseball/softball diamonds, covering a total of 140,000 square feet. Twenty courts have been placed on top of the turf fields for this weekend's volleyball tournament, Cargola said.
Total repair costs have been estimated to be $2.5 million, all covered by insurance. The dome, which opened in 2012, cost the village $2.4 million to build.
Next weekend, the dome will host a girls softball tournament, after which it will reopen for sports clinics and other groups that rent space there.