The renderings are bright and beautiful: a modern stadium with a glass roof, situated in a vibrant and popular downtown area. As the Rays unveiled the first images on Tuesday afternoon of what they hope will be their new ballpark, it was easy to imagine a future in which baseball in Tampa—long relegated to a dingy Tupperware container of a stadium—is an actual attraction.
There’s only one problem with that vision: Nobody knows who’s going to pay for it.
That’s going to be the question hanging over the franchise as it seeks to go from the old and unpleasant Tropicana Field in St.