I definately think if an agreement cannot be reached in time to start this season, they need to drop the players. Call up the minor leaguers and just have everyone bump up a step. Let everyone start at the league minimum (which has to be an increase from their current salaries) and negotiate next years contracts based on the performance this year. Go ahead and include the rules changes as mentioned earlier. Then determine a salary cap for the next years contracts to work by.
Ok, so i've solved the problem. Why is it taking them so long?