Its really rather simple, the owners want to win and sell merchandice. They are what caused this whole mess in the 1st place, whoever was willing to spend the most money to win I mean. Now that it is costing so much to win they want to reduce cost and keep the profit, simple as that. Any player is only worth what he can get a contract for. The owners want to make the most money they can and I dont think I have ever heard of a broke one. If they dont want to share in the profits they should lock them out and hire 3rd rate players and see what happens, disaster I would guess but who knows until they do and they wont for long IMO.