text: QUESTIONS WHICH REQUIRE ANSWERS. In Bootle and other places the football season has commenced in right earnest. Our own local club, if indeed we may call it that, has started has well; 9 games have already played which have proved to be of the most interesting character to those who taken interest in such pastimes. [...] First and foremost comes the "profit and loss account" of the club in question, and this is a very interesting item. Saturday after Saturday the ground is simply crowded with spectators, all of whom, with the exception of the subscribers, pay 3d. gate money. Last Saturday week, taking the figure from a Liverpool contemporary, we find that upwards of 5,000 persons on the field, and last Saturday there must have at least 4,000. Bring them together and we have 9,000 people upon the football field in two weeks. Nine thousand people at 3d. per head, would bring a gate of over £112. £112 to be raised in a fortnight by one club is no small sum, and it augurs well for the popularity of the game in Bootle, and the result of this season's play. [...] If, for the sake of argument, we place the length of the football season at eight months, and consider that the "gates" will average 1,000 persons each week, we shall thus conclude that at least £800 - £1000 will be taken in one year. Of course this money is not all clear profit. From it has to be deducted travelling and various other expenses incidental to a club of the standing of the Bootle Football Club; but we venture to assert that after all claims have been met a large surplus must remain. What, then, we require to know, is Where does this surplus go? If it were possible to obtain a balance sheet of the club, it would not be necessary to ask these questions. We have applied for a balance sheet upon more than one occasion, but the request has been met by one excuse or another, to the effect that no balance sheet was printed.
  The 15 October 1887 edition of The Bootle Times notes: "the questions asked of us a fortnight ago with reference to the working and management of the club have not been answered."