The Chicago Cubs signed a deal with Mynd Drinks to become the team’s official CBD partner.
It’s the first sponsorship of its kind for an individual Major League Baseball club, according to a Friday news release from MLB.
Under the deal, the Chicago-based wellness and beverage brand will have several activations within Wrigley Field, including baseline signage, in-game features and, in anther first for the Cubs, international marketing rights in the United Kingdom for the 2023 regular season.
The agreement stems from an MLB announcement in June 2022 that it would allow teams to accept CBD sponsorships
“When MLB opened the CBD category for its clubs, it allowed us to explore new partnership opportunities and offerings,” Alex Seyferth, the Cubs’ vice president of corporate partnerships, said in a statement.
“We’re proud to be the first club to partner with a CBD company, but what was more important to us was making sure that the brand was the right fit.”
Last October, MLB and Charlotte’s Web Holdings, one of the best-known companies in the CBD industry, signed an agreement designating the Colorado company as the league’s first official CBD sponsor.
The Cubs deal comes on the heels of a recent groundbreaking bargaining agreement between the National Basketball Association and its players union that would allow the league’s athletes to invest in and promote cannabis companies – a major shift among U.S. professional sports leagues.
