I have never seen an analysis by any of New York City's four (if you count Newsday) newspapers on the poll numbers regarding the stadium. From the beginning, Cablevision has outspent the Jets by about three to one on reported advertising.

But that number is just the tip of the iceberg. Because Cablevision is a service provider to much of the city and state, they can slip in anti-stadium ads into their allotted slots of advertising every hour on each network.

Further, Cablevision is also a content provider(except, these days, to those folks whose service provider is Time Warner Cable), which again gives them allotted slots of advertising time in every hour of programming.

So who is counting? All I know is, when I visit a friend outside of Manhattan and I put on the Fox Sports or the Yes network, I am deluged with anti-stadium ads.The real "spending," if there were true numbers available, would be more like five or six to one, Cablevision over the Jets.

Further, remember, this is negative advertising. It is much easier to attack than to defend. Hell, we are surrounded these days by politicians whose whole careers are built on smear-and-spear campaigns.

And if you think that advertising doesn't have anything to do with the public's views on issues, talk to whomever the Democrats nominate to face Mayor Mike this fall in, say, mid-October. After being outspent by the Mayor by about five to one this fall, the Democratic nominee will be lucky if they can get their own mother to vote for them.

BURBS BACK JETS STADIUM

May 5, 2005 -- A football stadium on the West Side of Manhattan is most popular in New York's suburban counties, where nearly half of the voters surveyed like the project, a new poll out yesterday found.

In the city, however, support for the $1.9 billion project slips to 41 percent, compared with 50 percent of Big Apple voters saying they oppose the stadium and 8 percent undecided, the Quinnipiac University poll found.

Meanwhile, a judge will hear charges today that the MTA shortchanged the riding public by failing to accept the highest bid for its railyards, which went to the Jets for $250 million. Tom Topousis