Benson & Hedges also withdrew their sponsorship of the Autumn Cup[1] and the competition ceased to take place.
[3] There was trouble in Sheffield when the Cooke, Jenkinson and Smith consortium who bailed out the Steelers at the end of the previous season were denied the franchise in favour of the league's preferred bidder, Norton Lea.
[4] After the Sheffield Arena refused to award ice time to Norton Lea, preferring to deal with the Cooke, Jenkinson and Smith consortium, the Cooke, Jenkinson and Smith consortium applied for the Sheffield Steelers to play in the second tier British National League.
However, this application was refused[5] and the club eventually continued in the ISL under the ownership of Norton Lea.
[6] As a replacement for the fixtures lost from the Newcastle Jesters games, the ISL arranged a new Ryder Cup style tournament between the ISL teams and teams from the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) to be called the Ahearne Trophy to be played in February 2002.