A problem. The players would in essence, be employees of a company and have responsibilities, contractually obligated. That’s how they set up the built Bar arrangement.
Once the collectives came in to play, everything changed. People started paying money to collectives to give to players and there was no responsibility other than show up and get your check.
If they’re my employees, and they perform a service for my company, marketing or otherwise I can write that off as an employee Expense