Antonio Brown got into a heated spat with a security guard at a National Arena League game over the weekend ... but a spokesperson for the venue tells TMZ Sports the former NFL star was in the wrong in the situation.
The incident went down at halftime of Albany Empire's season-opening game against the Orlando Predators in New York ... when Brown -- who just became part owner of the Albany squad last month -- was down on the field trying to hype up fans.
In videos that Brown posted from the game, you can see as he was shaking hands with kids and waving to people in the stands ... an MVP Arena security guard told him he needed to get off the field ASAP.
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The clips show the guard telling Brown he had to leave the area "right now" over and over again.
"I'll think about it," Brown can be heard saying in response ... before adding, "We ain't going nowhere."
Things escalated from there -- in Brown's videos, you can see he told the guard to "make me" get off the field repeatedly.
"It's my field," Brown said. "I'm the owner."
The two men then argued back and forth for several minutes.
On Monday and Tuesday, Brown blasted the guard over the situation ... saying on his social media pages the matter was "disgraceful."
But, the general manager of MVP Arena, Bob Belber, told us Tuesday morning Brown needed to exit the field simply for safety reasons.
According to Belber, halftime festivities were about to begin ... and as part of the show, the team was lowering its 2022 championship banner -- which required everyone to clear the area as it can present dangers for people below.
Belber, though, said not only was Brown not willing to leave ... he was actually trying to get kids to come onto the field, too ... putting them at risk.
"The safety of children on the field and Antonio was extremely important," Belber said.
Belber added that Brown used "pretty aggressive" language toward the security official that was not seen in the former NFL player's videos.
@AB84 was so kind and took all the time in the world to take photos with seemingly each and every @AlbanyEmpireNAL fan, including me! Thank you for your time and meeting each and every one of the fans!! pic.twitter.com/xIU1clOpoy
— John Yeman (@BroncosFanatix) April 16, 2023
But, Belber said he fully anticipates all sides coming together at some point this week and coming to an understanding.
"I think we'll get through this," he said. "The parties will come together and I'm sure this won't be repeated."
Belber said Brown has not been banned from the arena "or anything" like that ... adding, "It was a simple misunderstanding on his part -- he shouldn't have been down on the field."
Albany plays next on Saturday at MVP Arena -- it's unclear if Brown is planning to attend ... though when his part-ownership of the team was announced, we were told he had envisioned being as hands-on as much as his schedule would allow.