Kansas City, Mo. ? Though the new Sprint Center is owned by the city and primarily funded with public money, the facility’s managers are keeping the names of the facility’s 72 corporate suites a secret.

“It’s to protect the business interests and the confidentiality that we have with the clients,” said Shani Tate Ross, communications and marketing director for the downtown arena. “It’s about protecting our competitive advantage in the marketplace in this region.”

City officials said even they couldn’t get information on who is leasing the luxury suites at the city facility. If they had such a list, they said, they would make it public.

“I think it’s ridiculous that taxpayer dollars are involved and we’ve got people thumbing their nose at us,” said Jackson County Legislator Henry Rizzo.

He said it would be useful for the public to know who is benefiting from the arena, and warned that anytime information is denied it makes it even harder to ask the public to vote for a tax increase.

Rizzo said he would ask the county counselor for an opinion on whether Anschutz Entertainment Group, which manages the arena, is violating the state’s Sunshine Law by withholding the names. He said he might suggest the issue be part of the county’s proposed agenda for state legislation.

Of the 72 executive suites at the arena, eight are available for individual events and the rest require a long-term lease. Tate declined to provide details on the cost of the suites, saying it varies depending on size and location, but did say it involved a six-figure annual commitment for five, seven or 10 years.

The Sprint Center cost $276 million to build, with all but $53 million paid by AEG to come from hotel and rental car fees.

“The public has a right to know everything about how that building is operated,” said Jean Maneke, an attorney for the Missouri Press Association who frequently deals with Sunshine Law questions. “They paid for it.”

Without the information, she said, the public has no way of knowing whether some suite holders got better deals than others or whether there was anything wrong with how the suites were allotted.

Dave Frantze, attorney for AEG Kansas City Arena LLC, said his client was not a “public governmental body” under the Sunshine Law and was not required to provide the information.

Sprint Center general manager Brenda Tinnen, who also had worked for AEG at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, said the California facility also did not provide the names of corporate suite holders. She said that’s partly to keep people who aren’t invited from walking into a suite.

Concert promoter Chris Fritz said the identity of those who lease the suites is none of the public’s business.

“I don’t know why anyone would care,” he said. “If you’re not invited, you don’t belong there anyway.”

But Maneke disagreed with the notion that the public doesn’t have the right to know who is using a city-owned building.

“If you contract with a city to perform a public service, then you are subject to the Sunshine Law,” she said. She added that if AEG is not subject to the law because of a technicality, it’s something the Legislature needs to consider.