This Ex-Owner Talks Tough : Baseball: Argyros, who sold Mariners last year, says he had been prepared to give up the season.

George Argyros, who owned the Seattle Mariners until last September, said Thursday that he had been prepared to give up the season to ensure a favorable labor agreement with the baseball players’ union and urged current owners to take a hard line in the current labor dispute.

“I was willing to sit out this season to solve our labor problems, and I just hope that for once, baseball has the guts to also sit there,” Argyros said from his Arnel Development Co.’s offices in Costa Mesa. “I encourage the leadership of the game . . . to take the long view and don’t start the season until our problems are solved.

“The players have had the owners’ lunch . . . and I would have sat out forever to change our system.”

Citing the biggest problem as the financial disparity between the large television markets and small markets, Argyros predicted that a status quo settlement could cause franchise shifts.

“If the owners decide on another short-term solution, on another Band-Aid . . . there will be franchise dislocation,” Argyros said. “Teams will not be able to compete unless they move to other locations. The owners have got to ensure competitive balance for the good of baseball. It’s all a question of whether they have the guts.”

Argyros was a small-market owner for nearly nine years with the Mariners, selling the club for $77 million last September. He had bought the Mariners for $13.1 million.