DALLAS -- Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks says that if players strike, owners might retreat from compromise and push for baseball to have a salary cap.

"I think a majority of owners, including me, would probably like to have even stronger cost-containment than we're talking about right now,'' Hicks was quoted as saying in Saturday's editions of The Dallas Morning News. "If they do choose to go on strike, I'm confident ownership will not allow a repeat of 1994. We need to fix baseball and not just have another Band-Aid solution.''

Hicks, speaking from his yacht off San Diego, called the setting of the Aug. 30 strike date Friday "a maneuver for the benefit of public relations and not substance.''

A day after baseball players set the strike date, negotiators met twice on Saturday to discuss issues not related to the central economic differences.

The lawyers gathered twice at the commissioner's office for a total of about three hours, then recessed until Monday. The key issues of a luxury tax and revenue sharing were not discussed Saturday, and lawyers for both sides declined comment.

Owners want a luxury tax that would restrain player salaries, but they have proposed a far lower threshold and higher tax rate than the union will accept.

Hicks' preference is for an agreement before the deadline. He doesn't want a repeat of the 232-day strike of 1994-95, which resulted in a luxury tax most owners thought was ineffective.

"For the good of baseball, we need to have cost-containment and competitive balance,'' he was quoted as saying. "People know a strike wouldn't be good for the game, but what is worse is to put our fans through this every seven years. I think a lot of owners would have a preference for a hard salary cap like football has. That would probably be better for baseball, but that's not what we're negotiating this time.''

Hicks, who gave Alex Rodriguez a record $252 million, 10-year contract, said that if baseball winds up with a luxury tax, the Rangers would never exceed the threshold.

"Every team in baseball that has any kind of business sense would try to manage its payroll to stay under that tax threshold,'' Hicks said. "There might be one or two that wouldn't, but that's a decision those teams have to make. Certainly, I can assure you, the Texas Rangers wouldn't be among them. If this system is implemented, the Texas Rangers will be under the threshold.''