You know, the issue is two part. Culture and age.

A sedentary culture has settled in the Bernabeu, where btw it's extremely hard to get season passes unless you are a socio. The socios always saw with bad eyes the standing fondos crowds. Plebes in their eyes. They understood football and would only clap and cheer for quality, and for a fighting spirit. The crowd at the Bernabeu is one of the most mysterious and indecipherable groups of sports followers. On one hand they fell in love with Thomas Gravesen and Thomas Woodgate ( who must of played 1 or two matches all together in his infamous spell at RM), on the other they will whistle Zidane (during his first 6 months, he was booed), Ronnie, Cristiano... Michael Owen or, for any matter any forward who was competition to Raul was summarily executed. The culture is also one where if you stand and start jumping and cheering the team, people around you will look at you weird and demand that you calm down, because it interferes with their match. Your experience with negativity plays into that culture. They would rather whistle at an opponent, or at the ref, rather than cheer a player in need of support. Notorious are the players who have succumbed to the bad side of the Bernabeu, and especially cruel is their treatment of canteranos, some of whom have left the field in tears. Age: Well, this dichotomy of the Bernabeu has somewhat existed as a mirror of Madrid's society, divided between the more well heeled castizos and lesser rabble that would populate the standing sections of the stadium. With the implementation of all seating (Bernabeu is reduced from 98,000 to about 85,000), and the pressure from socios to access the season tickets, seating for younger and more vociferous followers dwindled. Add to this that the average age has sharply increased in the last 15 years (just look at a match and see how many cane wielding, 55 and up followers are in the stands), it's normal for league matches to be fully attended, but for visiting fans to make more noise in the stadium. The club would love to do somthing about it. Recently they got rid of Ultras Sur and are remodeling the younger supporting crowds, but it's a drop in the bucket when you are faced with a throng of socios who own season passes and will not relinquish until they are dead. Once dead they will pass them on to their not so young sons and daughters and so forth. The plus side is that maybe with the remodel that they are planning to do they can add hookups for dialisis machines and ventilators. And we could solve the cheering issue by pumping recorded cheers through a series of speakers... anything but piss off the constituency... reminds of the worst failings of democracy. Anyways, hope this gives you some perspective. DISCLAIMER! This is not a rant against Real Madrid Fans. I am one, rather rabid, and I hope not too trollish. But the critique is focused on the stadium dwellers themselves and the sad state of affairs that has led the real Real fans (or at least the loud ones) to be left on the sidelines. Ask any Real Madrid fan who is not a Bernabeu regular, and mention any European stadium and they will guaranteed look at you with a mixture of sadness and envy, for that is the piece that is missing (robbed?) from our club, a world class support. Now, just to play devils advocate, some people have argued that R. Madrid is this good and simply the team with the most trophies simply because all fans demand excellence, and that the cheering in stadiums is simply naive and not true football critique, therefore what exist is a symbiotic relationship that feeds fear and a drive towards excellence in the team at the cost of a nice place to work and cheer. I disagree, but an argument can be made... just to be balanced. Cheers