The only mechanism that would work would be a cap on the total amount that every club was permitted to pay players - including caps on basic salaries and appearance bonuses. By all means pay Rooney a basic salary of hundreds of thousands a week, but only if you accept that the cap means you...
Really? If you can persuade tens of thousands of people to shell out £35- £200 for a football match, what makes you think the price will drop to something lower than people have already shown they are willing to pay?