Sometime around 1949, my father decided to winter the pool empty when the canvas cover ripped. The pool popped at the deep end by about three inches. No damage was done to the pool (5/8" welded steel WWII salvage naval warplate) or the plumbing (1.5" galvanized). We eventually regraded and just ran the pool that way until 2003. Few people ever noticed the water was lower at the deep end. When we installed our first skimmer in the 60's, it went in the middle of a long side and worked fine.
We wintered empty for over 50 years. Every Memorial Day weekend, the whole family would hit it with scrubbrushes, Spic'n'Span and a garden hose, then we fired up the dedicated Artesian well and filled 40K gal in 18 hours.
You would probably not be so lucky with gunite and plastic pipes.