CALGARY -- The owner of an indoor golf centre in southeast Calgary says he isn't sure when his business will be able to reopen after snow caused an inflatable dome to collapse.

Just off Macleod Trail and 50th Avenue S.E. is where the massive green and white Golf Dome could be seen. But now the air-filled structure is deflated after too much snow accumulated on its roof in December. Massive tears in the fabric can be seen near the south entrance.

Terry Carter owns the facility and got the call at 9:17 p.m. on Dec 22. When he arrived he joined firefighters who were surveying the damage.

“It’s sort of your livelihood,” said Carter. “We’ve been doing this since 2007, we’ve had the dome and the National Golf Academy and we have a team of pros, all we do is teach and the indoor stuff and it’s all gone.”

The dome housed a putting area and an indoor driving range on two levels. Carter has spent the last few weeks salvaging equipment out of the structure.

“We know that the dome is unrepairable,” said Carter. “We were hoping we could fix it and get it up right away but unfortunately the damage is too severe, so the actual structure itself has to be replaced.”

Carter isn’t sure how long the rebuild will take but says 500 timecard members have been understanding and in some cases willing to help.

January to May is typically the busiest time of year for the dome and its instructors, except for this as pandemic restrictions have kept the facility closed.

A tent at the Hangar Flight Museum also sustained damage from the heavy December snowfall. The fabric that covers the metal structure ripped, dumping snow onto the historic aircraft inside.

“Because of the age of the building the snow doesn’t just slide off the roof anymore,” said Brian Desjardins, the museum’s executive director.

“Within a short period of time and that much snow, it collected quite quickly and it ended up rupturing or tearing one of the sections of the south west corner of the building.”

None of the artifacts stored inside was damaged.

The tent structure has been at the museum for the last 15 years, but was a second-hand purchase from the U.S.

No one is sure how old it is and while a contractor will be patching the tear, Desjardins has bigger plans.

“We do see it as a way to move forward in replacing the structure and starting a fundraising campaign,” he said.

His goal is to see a heated, insulated building with a concrete floor replace the tent hangar.

Desjardins knows it will be a long process but he’d like to see it finished in time to welcome the museum’s CF-100 that’s being restored in Wetaskiwin along with a Mosquito bomber that’s being worked on at the Bomber Command Museum in Nanton.