So far, the overwhelming consensus here seems to be that owners should be taking home a lot, $40 million or more.
Annually, that's approaching $1.5 billion for the 32 teams.
Annually, player salaries are in the neighborhood of $4.5 billion.
If the pie is $9 billion, that leaves $3 billion for everything else. Sounds like a lot, but it is only about $100 million per team, which has to pay for coaches salaries, GM, scouting staff, medical and training staff, office and field personnel, and all employees benefits like insurance, equipment costs, travel expenses, food, lodging, etc., etc.
Yes, there are other sources of income not part of the $9 billion, but there are also other expenses relating to stadium building, renovating and upkeep that I didn't include above.
My point is this, it doesn't seem that the amount of money that reasonably could go one direction or another is really all that much. A few million extra per owner on the one hand or a few thousand per player on the other shouldn't have stopped this from settling.
I think this is more about ego and "winning" than it is about the money.
The owners and players should have considered the saying,"Be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it."