It's only been in my area 5 years. I participated the first and second year, skipped the 3rd, participated the 4th and skipped the 5th(this year). The second year had the most participation of quilt shops in SD and I'd heard some of the shops in more rural areas didn't even get a winner. It was mostly tourists stopping to collect the plates. This year I think only 9 shops in the state participated.
I've found that I'd spend around $800 going to the quilt shops to collect the rows (not to buy the row, but I'd always fall in love with something!) . So even though I won each of the years I participated, the value of what I won didn't come close to what I spent.
I really loved participating and visiting the shops, even though I had to put about 800 miles on the car to get to 8 shops. But it does seem like the interest in my area is gone way down.