I don't know if this would work... but...
What if you made it so stadiums were part of the finances?
1. Building stadiums
2. Upkeep of stadiums (the more fans that come to the games... the quicker the stadium wears out..)
3. Eventually... the stadium would cost so much to "upkeep"... you would HAVE to build a new stadium.
That would keep the rich teams from just steam-rolling the league for years and years... as they would have the most fans.... thus their stadium would "wear out" the fastest.
I don't know... just a thought that popped into my head when I read this thread... maybe it's a stupid idea
Kurtis