The owners will always beat the players in a lockout. The public and most importantly the media will always back the owners.
The owners have an infinite amount of money in their war chest. They still get money from the networks if there is a lockout. The owners have stadiums which they rarely spent a cent on and get all the revenue from. These stadiums still make money from concerts, conventions, boat and car shows, cheer leading competitions, rodeos and etc. The league as a whole which is worth billions and can get a loan which it has in the past and then spread that loan out to the owners who can't pay their bills. Finally the owners can take out loans on their own teams which are worth billions to pay their bills until the lockout is resolved.
The players are employees and cannot beat them money wise. No more different than any other employee.
I don't know why folks don't understand this after 2008 economy died. We had folks making over 100k crying broke. Why because most people live beyond their means and if you do not produce anything you are under the rule of people who employ you.