Canberra Big Bash League big leader Mark McConnell also wants a sellout and feels it will also help Manuka Oval get upgraded.

The Thunder play the Melbourne Renegades men and women in a BBL game at Manuka Oval on January 24, but McConnell's group has already launched their bid for an ACT team to show they're ready when Cricket Australia decides to expand the lucrative Twenty20 competition.

Germon took exception to the launch, but wasn't against Canberra having its own team.

He said the Thunder wanted a two-year deal to play at Manuka Oval, but the ACT government only wanted one.

The Thunder general manager said they were committed to bringing the BBL to Canberra for as long as possible regardless of the bid.

He said they saw Canberra as part of the "Thunder Nation" and they have development officers based in the ACT.

They also select a regional rookie from the area and the University of Canberra were Thunder sponsors for the 2013-14 season.

"My surprise and disappointment was around the timing of the announcement," Germon said.

"[We] should all be working at the moment to maximise the guaranteed Big Bash content that's coming, which is in January.

"To announce now with pseudo memberships is really detracting from what we should be doing, which is really focusing on trying to sell out Manuka Oval for the double header on January 24.

"The only way to get guaranteed BBL content is for the Thunder to keep coming here. It's probably going to happen for the next four-five years even if expansion does occur.

"I don't see it as a turf war, I see it as us valuing the fans and the people of Canberra.

"We are in an opportunity to keep bringing Big Bash content to Canberra, but it needs to work as well. We just want to ensure we're all focused on that."

Fairfax Media revealed last month McConnell, a millionaire businessman, and a Canberra consortium had started planning a bid for when Cricket Australia decides to expand the BBL.

While there's currently no set timeframe on expansion, the Canberra group wanted to get on the front foot.

McConnell sees every game at Manuka as an opportunity to state Canberra's case and urged everyone to turn out for not only the Thunder game, but the women's Ashes T20 games between Australia and England on Sunday and Tuesday as well.

With only about 2000 tickets left for the BBL double header, McConnell was confident it would sell out.

He was "disappointed with Thunder's overreaction" to their bid launch, but he understood their point of view.

McConnell said a Canberra team would provide "a better return on investment" on Manuka Oval, which currently has minimal elite content throughout the year.

The GWS Giants play three AFL games and one pre-season game there, plus there are "two or three" cricket games during summer.

A Canberra BBL team would see "16-18" games every summer, which would also boost the ACT economy and help justify government investment in improving Manuka.

"For what is traditionally a low visitation time of the year for Canberra, this is going to be a boom for Canberra," McConnell said.

"This is far more important than just cricket. From a parochial Canberra perspective this really starts to put a lot of focus and attention on Canberra at the best time of year to drive visitation ... we see a number of stakeholders who will stand to benefit significantly from Canberra getting a BBL licence.

"It'd be a very strong return on [government] investment if you're filling the ground regularly."