Issue with liner

[ccondon23]

My chlorine float got stuck behind the jets in the stairs and caused this:





The liner here is brittle, especially at the edge of the wrinkles and I've had to patch a bunch of 6 leaks over the past summer. I bought a 1' x 4' piece of liner to patch it, but I'm unconvinced (based on the smaller patches that I've done) that it's possible to get a good seal around a patch that's the size of the entire step.

Has anyone run into this before? Thoughts on how to fix it? The liner is only 5 years old, so I definitely don't want to replace it. Can steps like this be retrofitted?

http://illbedead.com/inground-pool-steps-replacement/ If so, would that even be cheaper than a new liner?

Thanks,
Chris