Spruce Meadows was created to celebrate the horse. the horse will always be central to Spruce Meadows' focus, operations and brand. The vast majority of the year at Spruce Meadows is spent organizing and hosting the leading show jumping tournaments in the world in all their complexity. This includes charter aircraft scheduling and coordination of the horses, television network negotiations, tournament advertising and promotion, sponsor relations, athlete relations, corporate hosting, competition scheduling, staffing and management, special features, media services, entertainment programs, trade fair management and television production and distribution. Spruce Meadows organizes five FEI tournaments a year that offer $6 million in prize money, attract over 400,000 fans and are broadcast worldwide. In essence, it is a professional sports franchise without a team, featuring one of the few sports in the world where men and woman compete against each other on the same playing field. Spruce Meadows also organizes a number of nationally sanctioned events that provide young athletes their own Spruce Meadows experience. These are often held in conjunction with major FEI events to inspire junior and amateur athletes and allow them to share the environment of major championship sport. Each Spruce Meadows tournament carries a theme that allows the organizing committee to design entertainment and special features programs that run in conjunction with the sport. These include wonderful shopping opportunities, parades, performance stages, fires works, cultural exhibits, international cuisine, education programs and children's activities.