Portland's most ambitious adaptive re-use project cleared a major hurdle Tuesday, as hundreds of plans for the Memorial Coliseum were narrowed to three.

Veterans Memorial Arts and Athletic Center, the Memorial Athletic & Recreation Center and the Trail Blazers and Winterhawks Concept were chosen to move to the next round in the Rose Quarter redevelopment team selection process.

The differences between the three proposals underscores the complex issue of whether the aging coliseum best serves the city as a family oriented sports center with an aquatic center, or should continue to operate as an entertainment/sports venue for paying audiences.

The Blazers propoal would activate the area with an entertainment district, while the MARC proposal would convert the coliseum area to a recreation center for the community.

Another looming debate will be how much the nearly 50-year-old facility can be altered before its architectural integrity is compromised, and what changes are acceptable to make the coliseum an attractive venue that won't be a financial drain for the city.

Doug Obletz's Memorial Athletic & Recreation Center (MARC) proposal for the re-purposing of the Memorial Coliseum is the first proposal to be presented with a price tag: $60 million to $90 million of the project cost would be paid for through a voter approved general obligation bond.

"Ours is the only plan that significantly increase uses," Obletz said. The MARC project would attract 1.3 million users annually -- a figure more than double the estimates of other proposers.

At the meeting Tuesday evening, other teams were hesitant to talk price tags before the RFP process.

The Blazers/Winterhawks team said they want to keep the seating bowl mostly as-is, while Obletz says the "status quo" won't do. He wants to make the seating bowl more intimate by reducing its size.

"The coliseum needs upgrades but not massive changes," said Jumptown proponent Jay Isaac. "We feel we're at a crossroads in the process of shaping change."

Local architect Rick Potestio said the Blazers proposal "respects the original architectural concept" by SOM, which designed the facility in 1960.

MARC is Portland's next great project—a true landmark project, Obletz said.

The Jumptown proposal team of the Blazers and Winterhawks said their project will be a showcase for sustainability. Their project would reduce the size of the seating bowl. There is a need to design venue for best usage for events, the team said, noting that it's bad business to have empty seats. The coliseum currently holds 10,200 and the Jumptown prposal would make it about 8,000, according to Isaac.

The VMAAC is a proposed mixed-use redevelopment of the coliseum for arts, athletics and entertainment. It would be a catalyst project that would reinvigorate the Rose Quarter and foster what sponsors said would be a "cultural renaissance" in Portland. The plan would preserve the arena for 8,000 spectators. 

However, several audience members at Tuesday's meeting said they felt reducing the seating bowl was harmful to the coliseum's historic value.

No concept is viable unless it has a context, an urban designer added, noting that the area around the coliseum had to be planned for as well.

"You can build new retaurants and bars but that doesn't create culture," Obletz said, in a remark aimed at criticizing the Jumptown proposal. "Our proposal creates a new neighborhood--greatest playground in Pacific Northwest."

Rose Quarter Community Crossroads would be an alternate if any of the top three choices drop out, as well as Portland Action Sports.