Hinesville isn’t getting soured on pickleball — not anytime soon, it appears.

The sport is becoming so popular, city council members are exploring adding more courts to Krebs Park.

Assistant City Manager Ryan Arnold told council members a design for Krebs Park that would turn an open-use field into as many as six pickleball courts is under consideration. City Manager Kenneth Howard acknowledged the council and others have asked about adding more pickleball courts to the park.

“I felt this would be an opportunity for us to design courts,” he said of converting one of the open use fields.

Council members pushed to have pickleball courts put into the park, which originally was not designed to have any. But the growth of the sport led to turn one of the tennis courts into two courts for pickleball.

“They are almost always full,” Howard said. “Folks are waiting.”

“We do need to look at more courts for pickleball,” said Council member Karl Riles, one of the original backers of adding pickleball courts. “We definitely do.”

The existing tennis courts, Howard said, are not getting much use.

“There are very few who are playing tennis,” he said. “We definitely have an abundance of citizens who are using the pickleball courts and are waiting to play.”

Turning one of the two open play fields into pickleball courts won’t take up all of that space, Howard noted. There still would be space for open play, such as soccer or kickball or football.

The space under consideration for more pickleball courts is adjacent to the pavilion under construction. Also still on tap for the park are a playground and a playground to accommodate special needs children.