The Chicago Cubs are partnering with wellness and recovery brand Mynd Drinks to serve CBD drinks at Wrigley Field home games of the 2023 Major League Baseball season. The deal identifies fellow Chicago-based Mynd Drinks as the “Official CBD Partner of the Cubs” and makes the team the first in MLB to sign up With CBD trademark.
New agreement announced last week, Mynd Drinks It will market its CBD drinks at Wrigley Field and have several signage items in place, including baseline signage on the field and other stadium features. The deal also includes international marketing rights in the UK for the 2023 regular season, a first for the Cubs.
“When MLB opened up the CBD category to its clubs, it allowed us to explore new partnership opportunities and offerings,” Alex Sieverth, vice president of corporate partnerships for the Chicago Cubs, said. He said in a statement from the league on April 7 “We’re proud to be the first club to partner with a CBD company, but more important to us was making sure the brand was right. Mynd Drinks is a Chicago-based company that promotes overall health and helps relieve the stresses of everyday life, just like Friday 1:20 game at Wrigley Field”.
Mynd Drinks offers three flavors of cannabis-infused vegan and botanical wellness drinks that help people relax, refresh and recover. The launch of the company’s partnership with the Cubs includes online content to help team fans relax and unwind, including a YouTube guided meditation narrated by Cubs radio playlist Pat Hughes and a “Sounds of Wrigley Field” Spotify playlist.
“We are delighted and honored to announce our partnership with the legendary Chicago Cubs, and that they share our vision of health and wellness in major league sports,” said Simon Allen, CEO of Mynd Drinks.
Sports leagues are backing away from banning cannabis
The deal between the Chicago Cubs and Mynd Drinks is the latest example of the professional sports leagues changing attitude to cannabis.
In June 2022, MLB changed its policy allowing sponsorship deals with hemp-based CBD companies for teams and the league. Four months later, the league announced that it had struck a deal with Colorado-based Charlotte Webs, making the company’s products the “official CBD of Major League Baseball.” Bill Morningstar, MLB’s executive vice president of sponsorship sales, noted that the deal marked the first time a professional sports league had signed a sponsorship agreement with a CBD company.
“It’s always nice to be first, but the most important thing is to be right.” Morningstar said in an MLB statement last October. “That was really what drove us to this, making sure we did the education, understood exactly what the product stood for and what the company stood for… We feel really confident that we took the steps, the time, to make everything aligned.”
Jack Torturoli, CEO of Charlotte’s Online, notes that the deal will increase public awareness of the health and wellness benefits of cannabidiol (CBD).
“This partnership is a natural progression in the growth of the industry and our business, and in raising the quality of life for MLB players and a community of 180 million people,” Torturoli said. “Launching co-branded sports products will amplify each of our wellness missions. Most importantly, we will collaborate in educating teams, for players, for fans, for the general public, about what CBD is, and what CBD is not. It’s a choice. Truly unique CBD for a partner to Charlotte’s Web.”
On April 1, 2023, the National Basketball Association and the players’ union reached an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement that is said to be Ends the NBA’s ban on cannabis for players. According to the terms of the deal revealed the athleteIt will also allow players to invest in cannabis projects and sign endorsement deals with regulated cannabis companies.
The National Hockey League also ended its ban on cannabis for athletes, and no longer lists the plant as a banned substance. NHL players who test positive for cannabis use are not subject to disciplinary action, although players with THC levels deemed “abnormally high” by the league may be referred to a voluntary treatment program.
In addition, the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement for the 2020-21 season relaxed the league’s cannabis policy, allowing players to use the plant during the off-season while maintaining the ban throughout the playing season. The agreement also increased the level of THC that could be present in a player’s drug test prior to sanctioning by the league and ended game suspensions for all positive drug tests, with players facing fines instead.
As the health benefits of cannabis and cannabis become more known and accepted among the general public, it makes sense that professional sports would evolve alongside legalization. Aside from updating policies for players, nothing changes more than an official partnership between professional sports clubs and CBD and THC brands.
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