While Tampa is counting dollars on Rays stadium, St. Pete is counting the days

The proposed ballpark in Ybor City carries a price tag of nearly $900 million. City and county officials are hopeful that surrounding development fees and taxes will provide enough revenue to fund at least half of the stadium's cost. (Populous Architects)The clock isn't ticking, it's thumping.

Second by second, and dollar by dollar, time is running out for a baseball stadium that, in some ways, is 30 years overdue in Tampa.

That city, along with Hillsborough County, has one month left to convince the Tampa Bay Rays that a viable financing plan exists to pay at least half the cost, and probably more, of a $900 million stadium on the edge of Ybor City. Come Dec. 31, the window of opportunity is…