Stan Kroenke can officially add Arsenal Football Club to a personal collection that already includes the Los Angeles Rams, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and the Colorado Rapids. 

That's because the billionaire businessman, whose Kroenke Sports & Entertainment Group has made him a regular Forbes headliner, this week purchased Russian shareholder Alisher Usmanov's 30-percent stake in the Premier League soccer team. First reported by The New York Times, the agreement (worth about $712 million) not only ends a decade-long battle for full ownership between Kroenke and Usmanov but ensures Kroenke can "purchase the remaining shares in the club" and "take the club private."

In other words, Arsenal is now Kroenke's whether the club's remaining shareholders like it or not.

The Arsenal Supporters' Trust (AST) has already formally criticized Kroenke's acquisition, saying it's "a dreadful day for Arsenal football club." And former Arsenal star Ian Wright told ESPN it will be "absolutely disastrous" if Kroenke obtains full control of the team, mainly because, according to Mattias Kare, he believes the Rams owner "cares more about money than winning trophies."

Kroenke's wife, Anne Walton, technically owns the Nuggets and the Avalanche, but that's only to satisfy NFL ownership restrictions that forbid owners from owning teams in other markets.

Once the "formalities" of Kroenke's deal are finalized, per The Times, "Arsenal will adopt the private-ownership structure that is in place at most other Premier League teams." It's a process that Usmanov long opposed -- and an apparent reason he long refused to sell his stake in the team. For Kroenke, the move gives him two franchises in Forbes' ranking of the top 50 most valuable sports teams in 2018.

Most of all, as The Times' Tariq Panja wrote, it represents a win for a billionaire who, for years, has been denounced for his attempted Arsenal takeover:

Private ownership means that Mr. Kroenke's financial decisions would be subject to less scrutiny and, in some cases, eliminate the need for board approval, a source of concern to fan groups that were already concerned about their diminishing influence over the way the 132-year-old club is run.

The sale is a culmination of a decade-long quest for Mr. Kroenke, whose early overtures were rejected by Arsenal's board. In 2007, the then-chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, who led a board renowned for its conservatism, denounced the idea of selling out to Mr. Kroenke.