It is now official, St. Louis has been announced as the choice for Worlds through 2017.
I was hoping for Indianapolis, or a return to Atlanta…but St. Louis will do.
The dates for Champs 2015-2017 are: April 22-25 (2015); April 27-30 (2016); and April 26-29 (2017).
EDIT: This also stood out to me in the article:
When FIRST competitors return to St. Louis, they will see even more new developments in the area, including an invigorated Arch grounds, Ballpark Village, and a redeveloped Union Station. Those new developments, of course, are augmented by many youth-friendly venues such as City Museum, City Garden, Saint Louis Zoo, the Saint Louis Science Center, the Saint Louis Art Museum, and the Missouri History Museum. “Our mix of attractions and venues is really quite impressive and attractive, particularly to young people,” said Ratcliffe. “We can’t wait to show another generation of FIRST what St. Louis has to offer.”
Please…not back to the Science Center…please…
Very good news for St. Louis area teams!!!
This move sets a definitive bar for what the powers-that-be want champs to be over the next 4 years.
Disappointed…but we will get over it;)
Great, I don’t have to travel so far to see a lot of great teams.
Pretty disappointed in this decision I guess, even though I have no other venue to compare it to. It might just be I want something new and different, but to me STL has gotten kind of bland. But we will see whats down the pipe and what kind of changes they can make to improve CMP
I’m excited that it is in the same place because it is so close to home. I did want it to move to indy though. (Food Trucks!) I am interested in the new developments of the area for championships though. Sorry west coast teams.
This means that FIRST CMP and VEX Worlds will coincide in 2014 and 2015.
I would have enjoyed seeing a new city. The first year I went to Worlds was 2011, so I never have seen anything aside from St. Louis. Oh well. Don’t get me wrong, I think St. Louis is a wonderful city for it. I just like to see new places.
Ugh, two years of potentially telling a group of students they have to pick one and can’t go to both. Given the fact that May is effectively off limits I am not that surprised that this schedule happened.
Seems to me that’s
a) going to be a problem for some teams and people which consistently make appearances in both places (like 1114 [who’ve never missed an FRC CMP since they were a rookie way back in 2003, and won’t ever now that they’re a HOF team, and who frequently send at least one team to VEX worlds] and Karthik [as part of VEX’s GDC and a lead mentor for 1114 in FRC])
[strike]b) Yet another snipe at VEX/IFI by FIRST HQ, which frankly, are becoming quite tired. The stated goals of both programs are to better STEM education. Forcing people to choose between them is the WORST thing they can do. Stop wrestling over the existing Robotics program pie, and GROW the pie. First the switch away from IFI controllers in FRC, then the axing of FVC in favour of FTC, then minibots which ONLY allow Tetrix parts, VEX parts being specifically banned, and now this. Just stop. Seriously. [/strike] Are these the messages we want to teach the kids?
Note: I have edited this post. After some more consideration, I don’t necessarily believe this to be as malicious as I initially thought.
I am sure they are not making them be the same weekend on purpose. I remember reading last year that the weekends they were placed on could not be changed. They could not go later because they would interfere with AP testing, and could not go earlier because of venue issues. So I’m sure if there was something they could do to put them on different weekends they would do everything they could.
Also I am sure the switch to NI from IFI was not a snipe at IFI, it was just who they wanted to go with. Moving to FTC was the same thing, and Minibots was trying to promote their own program, not trying to undermine another programs.
Agreed. Even if these things aren’t intentional snipes, FIRST needs to recognize that they’re being interpreted that way.
There’s 52 weeks in the year. Plenty of room.
Call me cynical. You’ve only been around a short time. I’ve been around long enough to have seen enough little things to make me feel this way. I expect better from the organization I’ve devoted 10+ years of my life to.
While I really wished the championships could be in Indy I guess the bright side is that Indiana should be moving to districts sooner since we don’t have to worry about hosting anymore. 
52 weeks for CMP ??
@Ether: Obviously not, but the point remains that VEX Worlds and FIRST Championship need not be on the same weekend.
Both programs ARE growing at a significant rate, and that’s going to mean increasingly more collisions of their event dates. I don’t believe for a second though, that it means their World Championship Events must share a weekend, especially when many of the people who are the most dedicated to either program, contribute to both.
Its no particular secret that MANY VRC teams are associated with FRC teams.
I found the thread from last year where both people from VEX and people close to FIRST replied and gave their reasoning on the timing
Please, share with us your time travel knowledge. It would be especially useful during build season. 
On a serious note, I’m not sure what weekends it could be realistically moved to without changing the rest of the competition schedule. MSC is a week 7 event (and I assume other District Championships are as well…?) putting it just two weeks before Championship. That alone is a time crunch. Putting it later seems to have been effectively dismissed due to AP testing and the like. Putting it earlier seems to me a bit too short notice for some teams to find they are qualified.
Just my thoughts. If you are more knowledgable than I, please enlighten me.