Sometime today, the New England Patriots will announce the three finalists for their Hall of Fame, and starting this year, fans will select the inductees.

As part of the Patriot Place project, which includes a shopping mall and hotel complex, the Hall at Patriot Place will be built adjacent to Gillette Stadium. The Hall will be an interactive museum honoring all things Patriots and football, and its construction will be the tangible evidence of a long-held idea; there has been talk of such a museum for several years.

Last month, the 27 members of the Patriots Hall of Fame nomination committee held the first dinner of what will be an annual affair, where members of the committee made speeches on behalf of the players they would like to see inducted. The committee, comprising past and present beat writers, radio and TV representatives and five at-large members, then narrowed the list to three finalists.

The announcement of the finalists was supposed to come yesterday, but the team felt it was inappropriate, given that many members of the organization flew to Louisiana yesterday for the wake of Marquise Hill, who died last weekend after a jet-skiing accident on Lake Pontchartrain.

Instead, the announcement will be made today, and online voting will begin Monday and go through Aug. 1 on the team’s Web site, www.patriots.com.

Among those who could be among the finalists: receivers Stanley Morgan and Irving Fryar, tight end Ben Coates, defensive end Julius Adams, and Raymond Berry, coach of the Super Bowl XX runner-up team. To be nominated, a player or coach must be retired for at least four years.

To make it special for inductees, only one player or coach will be honored each year. But looking 10 to 15 years down the road, that rule will pose some interesting issues: by then, the stalwarts of New England’s recent run will be retired, and fans may have to choose between, say, Mike Vrabel and Richard Seymour. Team officials have said that they may revisit that situation if necessary.

The inductee will be honored as part of the team’s annual Kickoff Gala on Aug. 27.

Currently, there are 11 men in the Patriots Hall of Fame, though there is no permanent display for their honor.

Three of the men — guard John Hannah, corner Mike Haynes and linebacker Nick Buoniconti — are also members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and linebacker Andre Tippett very nearly became the fourth player in that group this year. Tippett made it to the top 10 in the Hall of Fame vote held in February, but fell short of being among the six men who will be inducted in Canton, Ohio, in August.

Hannah, voted New England’s “player of the century” in 2000, was a nine-time Pro Bowler during his 13-year career; he was inducted into both the Pro Football and Patriots halls of fame in 1991. Haynes was with the Patriots from 1976-82 and was selected to the NFL’s 75th-anniversary team; Buoniconti played for New England from 1962-68.

Tippett spent his entire 12-year career with the Pats, and is the franchise leader in sacks, with 100.

Other members of the Patriots’ Hall are: tackle Bruce Armstrong (played with New England 1987-2000), wide receiver/kicker and current radio broadcaster Gino Cappelletti (1960-70), defensive end Bob Dee (1960-67), quarterbacks Steve Grogan (1975-90) and Vito “Babe” Parilli (1961-67), defensive tackle Jim Lee Hunt (1960-71), and linebacker Steve Nelson (1974-87).

smanza@projo.com