If this was strictly crowd funded, without interference from the league what would it have to do with the league?
There would be no league involvement?
Are sponsorship deals included in salary cap calculations?
NHL ticket prices to put butts in seats are strictly fan/crowd funded and used directly to pay NHL player salaries already.
The Salary cap itself is based on league HHR and allowable spending on players based on crowd spending.
Its all apart of the circle of life in the NHL as part of the CBA. However Hard Cap = Hard Rules !!
I remember during the lockout all the creative ideas that came out like hiring the player's wife by the organization and paying them millions to offset player AAV contracts , or the owner buying the player a mansion or a yacht as part of a signing bonus to lower cap hits or Bill Gates tossing in a cool $10 mil to his favourite team to help them pay player salaries but not count against the cap..
However all these loopholes were considered and the CBA written to prevent cap circumventing tactics.