Loeliger is refusing to rest on his laurels following the NBL's successful foray into Canberra, revealing to The Canberra Times there is potential for Andrew Gaze and Andrew Bogut's star-studded Sydney Kings to tap into the market alongside the Illawarra Hawks.

The NBL boss says the return of the Canberra Cannons is on the table as he eyes further expansion, thus making local support of the Hawks and potentially the Kings crucial to the league's capital ambitions.

The Hawks took major strides towards striking a long-term agreement with the ACT government and Basketball ACT when 3344 turned out for their clash with the Cairns Taipans at the AIS Arena on Saturday.

Loeliger says the NBL's return to Canberra for the first time since 2008 was "a big step in the right direction" but says the local government and sponsors will need to buy-in to make the league's long-term vision viable.

"I would like to see more NBL games in Canberra, more than once every 10 years, put it that way. I’d like to see a couple of games here at least every season," Loeliger said.

"Then we go from there and see whether or not there is expansion opportunities, or three or four-game opportunities for a team or maybe even two teams.

"We’ve got two teams in NSW, there is no reason why each of them couldn’t play a game every now and then here in the ACT. More content here would be good.

"We’ve made no secret of the fact that this is a litmus test to see what we do in terms of servicing the Canberra market in the future. There has obviously always been talks of whether or not the Canberra Cannons could return to the competition, which has been an option for a long time and remains an option.

"Whether or not we look at something like bringing the Illawarra Hawks here more often, like the way Greater Western Sydney are doing in the AFL, there’s a whole bunch of different variations and combinations, and this is the first step heading down that direction."

GWS chief executive David Matthews has long identified upgrades of Manuka Oval as "the number one priority down here" with the Giants keen to extend their 10-year, $23 million partnership with the ACT government.

The Palace may be in need of a minor facelift in the way of air conditioning after stifling conditions at the AIS Arena over the weekend left players and fans struggling.

Illawarra coach Rob Beveridge dubbed their contest a "survival of the fittest" on a 41 degree day, conceding "their health could have been in jeopardy because it was extremely hot".

However the NBL may not be in a position to commit to helping to upgrade the venue as the ACT government waits for Sport Australia to make a decision on the future of its major assets, including Canberra Stadium, the AIS Arena and the AIS pool.

"It’s interesting, the venue has actually coped pretty well because it’s underground and it’s surrounded by concrete. The air circulation has been cranked up as high as it can go. I wouldn’t want to play here in 40 degrees too often though," Loeliger said.

"We’ll have a bit of a debrief after this game to see how the venue performed in terms of broadcast, fan experience, team experience. Without the benefit of that debrief, it seems to have held up pretty well.

"I’m really interested to see the replay on TV and see how it looks on TV. We had the WNBL semi-final here which looked great on TV."