The Portland Pickles will become the first sports team to legally sell cannabis-infused drinks during a live sporting event. In partnership with the Oregon-based weed company Cycling Frog, the arrangement makes the brand the exclusive THC beverage partner of the West Coast League’s Portland Pickles for the 2024 season.

"We're thrilled to be making history with The Portland Pickles. Making THC seltzers available at Pickles games is a huge step, and we look forward to sparking a broader conversation via this partnership," Matt Palomares, Cycling Frog VP of brand marketing, said in a press release.

The THC seltzer will be available at every home game throughout the rest of the season, which began on June 18, reported several Oregon outlets.

The Portland Pickles are an independent collegiate wood-bat baseball team based in Portland, Oregon. They've attracted over 400,000 fans in their first 5 years and, knowing Portland, their new offering is likely to attract many more.

Alternative To Booze

“The Portland Pickles are excited to provide an alternative option for drinking alcohol or alternative beverages,” said Ross Campbell, vice president of business development for the Pickles. "As we saw in 2019, becoming the first team to ever partner with a CBD company and quickly teams all the way up to the Major League level across sports follow suit. We are very proud to provide an alternative option at our games with Cycling Frog Products for our incredible fans and the city of Portland."

Alcohol will still be available at the stadium.

In mid-May, a new study showed that, for the first time ever, the number of Americans who consume cannabis on a nearly daily basis surpassed the number of people who drink alcohol that often – a shift some 40 years in the making as recreational marijuana use become more mainstream and legal in some form in nearly half of U.S. states. One surprising piece of data noted that since 1992, the per capita rate of daily cannabis consumption in the U.S. has increased nearly 15 times over.

The drinks at Portland’s Walker Stadium contain two milligrams of THC and four milligrams of CBD – both key ingredients in Cycling Frogs’ seltzers – and are non-alcoholic.

Due to Oregon laws, sales must adhere to regulations for service from a business, which the ball club has cleared with the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission and Portland Parks and Rec, which owns Walker Stadium where the Pickles play. Legal weed in Oregon was approved in 2014 and sales got underway July 1, 2015.

Cycling Frog will also be featured in promotions throughout the season. The Pickles said that once the season ends, the team will likely extend the partnership into a second year.

Play ball!

Courtesy photo