to birdman,
I am doing this from memory but I think I am still correct. The money goes to the league which distributes the money to the non-luxury teams. The idea (in theory)is the those teams with limited cash flow will get an influx of cash to help them get competitive. However that is why the union contract put in minimums for each team. In other words a team can get the shaft if it spends too much or get the shaft by spending too little and just tries to pocket the cash.