It was one of the standout moments of the Commonwealth Games here as Birmingham-born Hesson became the hometown hero.

This fairy-tale finish was played out at a rocking Smithfield - the site of a former wholesale market that has been transformed into a buzzing hub for the beach volleyball and 3x3 basketball venues.

"I have played basketball in every corner of Birmingham," said Hesson.

"This is where I used to catch the bus.

"This is where I went to the markets with my gran."

Smithfield has come alive over the past two weeks thanks to the two sporting arenas and Birmingham 2022 festival site.

Joel Lavery, strategy lead on major sporting events for the West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC), believes temporary venues are key to the future of hosting big competitions.

Can you imagine a wall installed in front of the Town Hall for a sport climbing event or athletes jumping over the 'Floozie in the Jacuzzi' fountain at Victoria Square for a parkour competition?

These are among the suggestions made by Lavery as the WMGC considers which sporting events to target and how to stage them.

"The best venues are no longer stadiums," Lavery told insidethegames.

"FISE [International Extreme Sports Festival] put on an urban sports festival in Montpellier using a venue like Victoria Square, Centenary Square or one of the big parks or open spaces in the region to deliver those events and create a whole temporary infrastructure.

"You are taking events to the people instead of trying to take the people to the events."

3x3 basketball has surged in popularity since making its first appearance at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.

The half-court game made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 before featuring at the Commonwealth Games for the first time in Birmingham.

Rugby sevens, skateboarding and surfing are other sports that have gained Olympic status in the past decade, while breaking is set to feature at Paris 2024.

Lavery claims sport is at a "major crossroads" due to the way people view and consume sporting events as well as the impact of technology.

"Sports of the future are the things like esports which we are hosting here for the first time," said Lavery as Birmingham stages the Commonwealth Esports Championships at the International Convention Centre.

"People competing in their own bedrooms virtually, that’s where some sports are heading.

"That’s not to say there is not a place for traditional sports, they are the foundation but emerging sports that people do individually, using different forms of technology or other sports that have come to the fore are the really exciting ones for me.

"I sat watching a sport called padel which is a cross between tennis and squash.

"It is one of the fastest growing sports in Europe and probably further afield.

"We have a fantastic venue in the Edgbaston Priority Club which hosts the women’s tennis championships every year so why not look at a sport like padel and bring in a new audience into the city?"

The WMGC invited representatives from around 15 International Federations (IF] that it feels "match our ambition to be innovative, inclusive and appeal to our young and diverse population".

Among those include World Obstacle, World DanceSport Federation, World Kabbadi and the Global Esports Federation.

The WMGC was also set to hold talks with senior officials at all the IFs that had sports taking places during the Commonwealth Games that are set to close tomorrow.

"Birmingham is a city that is young, diverse and inclusive so we want to focus on sports that appeal to that audience," said Lavery.

"If you look back at the last Olympics in Tokyo, two sports that were the most popular and the greatest spectacles were skateboarding and climbing.

"They are emerging sports that are attracting new audiences that are appealing to young people with that sense of danger and risk."

The WMGC and Birmingham City Council have set the target of securing the hosting rights for at least eight global events within the next five years.

"[City Council leader] Ian Ward described hosting the Commonwealth Games as a postcard to the world so if we get enough people reading that postcard in 'International Federations land' then we will attract many more than eight [events].

"It could be 18 or 80, there is no ceiling to it."

Having covered sports at various venues at Birmingham 2022, the one area that the organisers have got spot on is the entertainment.

Whether it’s beach volleyball rakers dancing in the sand, DJs getting the crowd jumping or fireworks going off, the atmosphere has been electric.

World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin revealed the global governing body had "big plans for sevens to become our version of 'sportainment'", with ambitions to "dial up" the razzmatazz at the events.

England’s Commonwealth Games netball gold medallist Ama Agbeze, a Board member of Birmingham 2022, also believes the entertainment factor is crucial to staging events as she hailed the sports presentation team.

"In today’s society with social media people want instant gratification so you have to keep people’s attention and for young people that’s slightly more challenging," said Agbeze.

"Sportainment is certainly a thing and 3x3 basketball embodied it really well in terms of the energy, the music and the vibe.

"It was pumping.

"Smithfield was incredible so moving forward I think that’s how sport needs to be.

"We are trying to capture a target audience that have their focus in other places, so it is really important that we entertain people.

"I think the sports presentation team have really worked hard.

"Everybody doesn’t love sport, so you have to find ways to get people into it.

"If the end goal is to increase participation across the country you have to get people who think sport isn’t for them.

"It is getting someone to say 'Oh my gosh did you see that dancer at the basketball, did you see the person raking the sandpit at the beach volleyball or the woman in the crowd dancing with the steward at the netball?'

"Those things will draw people in as well."

Having proven they can deliver great entertainment alongside staging 11 days of competition at a major multi-sport event, Birmingham and the West Midlands have a huge opportunity to seize their moment at sport’s crossroads.

"The Commonwealth Games are the fuel in the rocket," said Lavery.

"As a region, we want to attract interest from International Federations and use all our strengths to bid and host those major events like the European Athletics Championships [in 2026] and Eurovision [in 2023].

"We have ambitions and something like the Commonwealth Games can supercharge it and give us that TV advert to the world."